Mass Effect: Mercenary
by Lursmani
Summary: A former Alliance elite soldier David Grayson, who seems to have a lot of connections with Shepard, and other main characters in the game, meets a quarian named Lia'Vael on the Citadel and they take part in fight against the reapers while fighting for their survival. Will span accros ME2, 3 and after the red ending. Starts slow , but it'll become deeper, darker and more interesting
1. Introduction

**Notes: The first half of the story will be edited pretty soon, to fix the errors and stuff. I was focusing on writing new chapters, but I decided that I should fix the errors first. This chapter is finished.**

Lia felt strange. No one had done anything for her since she arrived on Citadel. Everyone treated her like a thief, no one had helped her on her pilgrimage, and now this stranger came and helped her, even though he has never seen her before. And this stranger was no one else but Commander Shepard.

But now he was gone. Lia had to go on and find some way to survive. She couldn't spend all her pilgrimage in the turian shelter, and she had to take something valuable back to the flotilla. A new ship would be great, but the longer she stayed on Citadel, the more it became a dream, rather than a reality

She went to several shops, but no one would accept her for longer than a day. At such pace, it would take years, if not decades to get enough money for a ship. Maybe she should have gone to Omega instead. She knew life there was even harder; her friend Kenn was there on his pilgrimage and they were in contact all the time.

Lia kept thinking about what to do all the time. After a few days, it was decided. She was leaving for Omega. She could handle a gun, and knew that Omega was the best place to get credits for it.

Lia sat on a bench in some park for three hours, thinking about how to get there, or what would happen to her. It was very stupid for a quarian to start mercenary work on Omega, and she knew it. She didn't even want to go there after she thought about it. A human walked up to her, but she didn't notice him.

"Hey," He said, sitting down next to her.

She raised her head, not expecting anyone to pay attention to her.

"Uum...Hey? Do we know each other?"

"No, we don't. But when I see someone, especially a quarian sitting on a bench for three hours, without moving, I know something's wrong."

Lia wasn't sure what to say. She thought that he wouldn't be interested in her problems. Even if he was, how would he help?

"This is my problem. I can handle it."

"I heard when you asked that clerk how much tickets to Omega would cost. That's not a place for a quarian to go."

It was hard to believe. Some stranger came to her and is trying to help her, again.

"It can't be worse than this..." She said, and started thinking about Omega again. "Why are you talking to me like you care?"

The man looked at the ground. "I have several reasons for that. I can tell you one of them." He looked at Lia for a second. "I knew a quarian. He was a good man. I met him on a colony where I was stationed to defend colonists from Blood Pack. He already had his pilgrimage gift ready, and was going to head back to the flotilla next day.

He was very... energetic. Hell, he was almost hopping instead of walking, like a little kid. The day before the Pack attacked, I was invited by the family he was staying with. We had a good time. He told me that as soon as he would get back home, he would give his little sister the longest hug in the universe..." The man sighed. It was hard for him to remember.

"What happened when the pack attacked?" Lia felt like she didn't want to ask, but curiosity overwhelmed her.

"The next day, we got reports that the Pack was attacking other small farms on the planet. The town looked peaceful, and no hostiles were around in 15 km radius, so our unit was divided into several squads and sent to different locations. Me and two others stayed to prepare mechs for defence. Guess what?" The man lifted his head and looked at Lia."It was a diversion... That night, we detected movement, and they kept getting closer. We took all civilians to shelters, but the quarian refused, saying he could handle himself. I didn't have time to argue, so I just told him one more time to go, and ran to our shuttle to get geared up.

It was brutal.. I saw a Krogan tear my squadmate in half. The other one took a bullet in his shoulder. Suddenly I saw a black figure run to him from the town. It was the quarian... he applied medi-gel to my squadmate's shoulder, took a gun from a dead Vorcha, and started defending with us. I yelled him to go back, but he wouldn't listen..."

After a few minutes we were overrun. A few LOKI mechs were no match for all those raging Krogan and Vorcha. A Krogan hit me with a concussive shot, and would have killed me, but the quarian shot him with his last round. The Krogan turned to him, roaring like an animal. He restrained the quarian with no effort. He didn't try to run, he knew that if he ran, the Krogan would kill me instead. The Krogan started tearing him in half. He was crying in pain, but I couldn't even see straight, my muscles were too weak to pick up a gun.

Somehow I managed to shoot the Krogan with my pistol. His shields were already down, and Carnifex rounds penetrated his armour. Before he died, he threw the quarian aside in anger. When I was able to get to him, it was too late. He broke his neck when the Krogan threw him...his death is on me. He sacrificed himself to save my life."

The man stopped talking. His face showed anger and guilt.

"Keelah... must have been horrible. He was about to go back home to his family and... Why are you telling me this?"

"I have never seen a quarian since. It's been about one Earth year after that, and I still feel guilty for not trying to stop him from taking that gun. I would've died there if it wasn't for him, so I owe him my life. He helped me then, I'm going to help you now." After a moment's pause, he continued "I'm a freelancer. Trading, scavenging debris fields, making deals with some corporations is what I do. I could always use help on my ship, and I will pay well. Safer than Omega, better than this. What do you say?"

Lia was even more surprised now. He sounded young for a human, couldn't have been older than 30, but he had his own ship and was hiring a quarian he didn't know. He definitely trusted quarians. What could she say? After a few seconds, she said in a shy manner:

"Well, if you really mean that, there's no reason for me to refuse. Thank you"

"Great. I believe I got myself my first employee" He tried to hide his anger and suppress the memories. "We haven't met properly yet. David Grayson. Former Alliance."

"Lia'Vael. Lia'Vael nar Ulnay."

"Nice to meet you. Now get your baggage, and go to docking bay S-3. I'll be waiting there." He turned around and was going to the bay already.

"I... I don't really have any baggage. I don't have anything..."

"What?" David turned around swiftly "Now that is not acceptable." He did something with with his omni-tool. "There. I transferred 1000 creds to your omni-tool. Go buy whatever you need, and meet me at the docking bay."

"I can't accept this. You've done enough for me already, I..."

"Consider it your first payment." And he walked away.

**Thank you for the review. Helped me a lot.**


	2. The Omega

Lia bought some food, spare parts for her suit and other necessary items. When she arrived at bay S-3, David was already there. He led her to a small, fairly old ship. She looked everywhere for a name, but the ship didn't have one. Just numbers - STS-1703.

From behind her, David spoke, "I know she's pretty old, but very maneuverable. Saved my ass on my second trade trip. Those pirates never thought that this kind of design could hold so many missiles." He smiled.

"You survived a pirate attack?"

"Yup. When I was Alliance, I served in MADE - Multipurpose Assault, Defence and Extraction. Basically universal soldiers, trained in every aspect of war, including piloting and space combat. Turns out, STS is almost as maneuverable as the Kodiak, bad news for those pirates. Have some good memories with flight training. I remember that my wing-man was usually a man named Steve Cortez. Nice guy. Still with the Alliance."

"You sound like someone with talent. Who could've survived a pirate attack in this?" She pointed at the ship. "By the way, why doesn't it have a name?"

"Didn't bother to name it. Just some random letters and numbers. Simple, and enough. Now let's get her ready. We leave in 10 minutes. Your job will be to keep an eye on ship sensors for anything unusual."

"Really?" She sounded offended. "I'm a quarian. I know a few things about ships. I can maintain the core and systems myself. And I can sleep on my workstation if there is no room."

David couldn't help but smile, seeing how dedicated she was.

"Don't worry. The ship's made for five man crew. I'm sure there's room for two."

"Thank you again, I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't found me." She meant these words. She'd never felt so lucky since she left the flotilla.

"Just keep doing your work and you'll do fine. Now let's board. First stop - Omega. Have to deliver some... goods there."

The docking clamps were released. Lia settled in the smallest room of the ship. She felt more comfortable that way. Unpacked everything and started working right away.

A few hours later, they arrived on Omega. After they docked, David took a pistol and hid it in his belt. Then he took a smaller pistol and gave it to Lia.

"You can never be too careful here. Know how to use it?"

"Had some practice. I don't like this place. I feel so... threatened." If you asked her yesterday, she could've stayed on Omega and finished her pilgrimage here, but now she wasn't sure.

"Take this too, and keep it turned on," David gave her a shield generator, "I'm a biotic. I don't need shields."

They entered the central part of Omega, near the Afterlife bar.

"Behold Lia - the dirtiest shithole I've been to. My client is waiting in the residental district. We should hurry."

_Residental district? That's where Kenn works_

When they got close to the door to the district, someone rushed out from that door and bumped into David.

"Oh I'm sorry... I'm very sorry sir. I'll just walk away alright? I don't want any problems."

Lia recognised that voice, and that suit.

"Its okay. You seem to be in a hurry..." David was going to ask him something, but Lia suddenly dropped in.

"Kenn, is that you?"

"How do you... Wait, Lia? Keelah, it is you! What are you doing on Omega? Thought you were on Citadel."

They hugged each other for some time. Then Lia asked him:

"What happened to you, why are you in such a hurry?"

"You won't beleive it, but Commander Shepard walked to my store, and gave me credits to buy a ticket off-world."

"Shepard?!" Lia and David exclaimed together.


	3. The old friend

Lia introduced him to Kenn, but he didn't pay much attention to them at first. He was overwhelmed by the thought that his old friend, the one he has not seen for more than 4 years, was here.

"So Shepard really gave you credits?" Lia asked.

"Yes. When he approached me, I got nervous. Three heavily armed men were standing in front of me. I thought they were going to rob me, but they wanted to buy T-6 FBA couplings. Then he asked me why I was on Omega, I explained it to him, he just gave me credits for the ticket and they left."

"Talk about coincidence," David said, smiling. "Can you tell me where they were headed to?"

"They said something about the Afterlife. Anyway I have to go now. Have to catch the first ship out of this pisshole."

"Okay Kenn. Good luck on your pilgrimage."

"I hope you'll do better than I did. Keelah'Selai." Lia hugged him for the last time, and Kenn left.

"I know what you're going to ask. I'll explain on the way," David said while heading out of the district. Lia followed him. "Shepard and I were training in the same program for longer than a year. That program was for the best Alliance marines to determine which advanced task group they would be moved to. We were very good friends. Then he was moved to the N7 program, and I was sent to MADE. We kept in touch until he lost his team on Akuze. Then he decided he didn't want to remember some of his past. Then he was announced KIA by the alliance, and now he's back."

They approached the Afterlife. There was a line outside, an elcor guard was stopping people who were trying to get in. David walked right to the door. A batarian guard opened the door for him.

"Some of the benefits of having good relationship with Aria." He told Lia and they walked in the club.

Lia wasn't familiar with such atmosphere. Red lights, lots of noise, dancers... She felt uncomfortable here.

"That looks like him," David pointed at a man, which was accompanied by another man in black and white light armor, and a woman, also in the same kind of armor. They were headed towards them.

"Let's surprise him," David smiled and walked up to Shepard.

"John Shepard. Never thought I'd see you again."

Shepard looked at him and raised an eyebrow. His friends looked surprised as well.

"Do I know you?" John thought he looked and sounded framiliar, but couldn't remember anyone like him.

"In fact, you do know me. Come on Shepard, it's been less than 4 years since we last talked and you already forgot who was covering your right flank all the time during training"

Shepard frowned.

"What's with the surprised face Shepard? Do I really look that ugly without my beard?"

"David? David Grayson?"

"One and the only."

"It's been so long David. How did you find me?"

"Didn't bother. Everywhere I went I heard the name "Shepard". So I went on a noble journey to find this great hero and get his autograph."

Shepard chuckled.

"Damnit Shepard how many times do I have to tell you not to smile. You're always ugly when you smile."

"David... remember when some Krogan beat the crap out of you and you lost all your front teeth?" Shepard was planing to counterattack.

"ALMOST all of my front teeth." He crossed his hands. "I had three left."

"And you called me that day, told me all about it before you got teeth replacements. I couldn't stop myself from laughing when you tried to pronounce words correctly. I recorded that, and if you don't stop talking about my smile, I'll put the recording on every galactic news by tomorrow."

This idea didn't sound very appealing to David at all.

"Blackmail huh? That's new. So what have you been up to last 4 years? Except for saving the Citadel of course."

"I was dead. I spent last 2 years in a coma while Cerberus revived me."

"If I didn't know you, I wouldn't believe it," He looked at Shepard's companions. "So these two are with Cerberus?"

"Yeah. This is Miranda Lawson. This is Jacob Taylor."

Miranda joined the conversation.

"Shepard, I'm glad you met your old friend, but if we want to get to Archangel while he's alive, we need to hurry."

"You're going after Archangel too?" David asked.

"Actually, I want to recruit him for my team. Know anything about him?"

"I know that he's hunted by all three merc groups. Rest of his team was killed off, and he's been losing a lot of ground to the mercs."

"They have him cornered on the lower levels. He's killing a lot of mercs but he can't hold forever. I'm gonna get him out." Shepard sounded confident.

"Would love to see you pull that. Mind if I tag along?"

Lia couldn't believe her ears. David was going to go with Commander Shepard against 3 largest mercenary groups in the galaxy. She was going to ask if he was sure about this decision, when her omni-tool started beeping.

"David!" She shouted, running to him. "David..."

"Oh and this is Lia'Vael nar Ulnay. We met on the Citadel." David introduced her to Shepard.

"I think I have already seen that suit somewhere..." Shepard narrowed his eyes, "Wait, it was you wasn't it? You were the one that Volus was accusing of stealing his chit right?"

"Yeah. Thank you again for that, but we have a problem."

"What is it?" David asked.

"Someone's hacking your ship's cargo hold door. Connecting to the security cameras now..."

"Eclipse..." David mumbled, and turned to Shepard.

"You might have a problem. I delivered a shipment of 7 YMIR mechs a few minutes ago. The Eclipse mercs are trying to activate them as soon as possible. If they have a problem with Archangel, this will solve it. You better hurry to him. I'll go back to the ship and stop them from activating the mechs. Lia, follow me, and keep your shields up. I might need your help."

"You worked for Eclipse?" Shepard was surprised.

"No. I just deliver packages. This was one of them. Now I better hurry to the ship. Nice seeing you Shepard. We'll meet again sometime."

"Same here friend. Take care."

They all left the Afterlife. David and Lia hired a cab and went to their ship. They dropped of about 200 meters away from the STS, and David went inside a building right in front of them.


	4. Not a very good plan, Grayson

"I hope you have some kind of plan David. They might have activated the mechs already. If the haven't, it's not gonna be long before they do." Lia was nervous. The fact that they were going to fight several eclipse mercs, and possibly 7 YMIR mechs scared her to death.

"I'm not gonna go in there blind Lia. Calm down," He said while walking to the elevator.

They took the elevator to 6th floor. David turned to the right as soon as they left the elevator and opened a big wall safe. Lia's eyes widened as she saw an arsenal of weapons inside.

"I always knew a day like this would come. So I reserved this docking bay and set up several "chests" like this around it."

He grabbed some weapons.

"David, I can use sniper rifles and shotguns pretty well."

"I doubt that a young girl like you can shoot well enough to fight professional mercs, but gotta be better than throwing sticks at them. Here take this," He threw her a Mantis sniper rifle. "Don't use it unless you have no choice. I'd like you to live through this."

He went to a window that looked over his ship and looked through the scope of his Indra.

"I modified it's scope with a directional mic."

After a few seconds of observation, he put the rifle down and contacted Shepard.

"Shepard I was right. They said they were sending all 7 mechs to kill Archangel. I'll try to stop them from doing so, but you better hurry in case I can't so it."

"Understood Grayson. We are heading to him now. Try to stall them at least."

"Stall them? While you fight all those mercs? Shepard I'm not letting you have all the fun. I already have a plan, don't worry."

" I'm sure you have," Shepard said sarcastically. "Shepard out."

"A plan? What kind of plan?" Lia asked.

"You told me you can hack systems right?"

Lia didn't like the sound of that.

"I... might have..."

"Good. I'll lure them away from the ship. You enter the cargo bay, and lock the doors. Then access the weapons systems and blow them to hell. Mechs aren't active yet, and with some luck, won't be anytime soon."

Lia stood silent. Was he really going to send her behind all those Eclipse mercs? What would happen to her if she failed to get to the door, or if the mechs were activated before she would get there? What would she do when she got aboard? This plan was doomed to failure, even she knew that._  
_

"You can do it. Just do as I say." David tried to cheer her up.

"Okay David. But if this doesn't work..."

"It will."

They left the building and headed towards the ship. David ordered Lia to go around the ship. He hid his weapons behind a wall where he was standing and yelled.

"Hey! What are you doing with my ship?!"

The mercs looked at him, and started walking towards him. "We're taking what's ours! You were supposed to deliver these mechs hours ago!" one of them yelled back.

"I'm near the ship." He heard Lia's voice in his omni-tool.

"Just in time. The engineers inside the cargo hold seem to be lightly armored. I'll kill them from here, you rush inside and lock the door."

David quickly took cover behind the wall where his weapons were, picked up the Indra and killed both engineers inside the cargo hold. Before other mercs realised what was happening, Lia started running to the hold. David kept shooting to get their attention.

One of the mercs noticed Lia and aimed his gun at her. David saw it, and suddenly his body started failing him. He remembered how that Quarian sacrificed himself for him. He was going to lose Lia too, and it would be because of his orders again...

He started moving his scope to aim that merc. He was hoping that Lia would shoot that merc first, but she failed to do so...

_Come on Lia, shoot him! _

The merc fired a round. David's whole body stopped moving... his vision got blurred and it seemed like his heart stopped pumping as well, but he instinctively pulled the trigger and killed him

He was unable to do anything for less than a second, but it seemed like forever. Then he started moving the scope to where he remembered Lia was... His body rested in relief when he saw Lia was still running. Then he remembered - shields. He gave her shields. He saw that she entered the hold, and locked the door behind her.

David kept shooting mercs and throwing them around with biotics, when Lia's voice was heard through the comm. "David these mechs will be activated in less than 3 minutes. Eclipse engineers were uploading an IFF code. It's automated, so I have to disable it. This door won't hold them if they're activated."

"Hurry up Lia! I could use those missiles right about now!"

His biotic barrier was getting weakened. He took cover and waited before it was restored. The mercs were getting closer, but he was holding them off for now.

About a minute later, he heard his ship's cargo hold open. Then he heard as the merc group leader exclaimed: "Finally!"

The mechs were activated... but what about Lia?

"Lia are you there?" He spoke trough his comm nervously.

"Yes I'm here. But I'm not so sure about the mercs though." She sounded amused.

"What?"

The mechs opened fire on the Eclipse. David looked at all this with his eyes widened. What the hell just happened?


	5. The Normandy

After a few moments of heavy gunfire and explosions, all the mercs were dead. The YMIR mechs automatically shut down after they fulfilled their purpose.

"I decided to tweak the IFF code they were uploading, instead of disabling it" Lia said over the comm, proudly. "They must've been in a hurry, they were using simple coding to make the upload faster."

David ran to his ship, and found Lia standing in the cargo hold, doing something on the dead merc's omni-tool.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking the data on his omni-tool. This were the only squads sent here. There should be no reinforcements."

"Good. Let's see how Shepard's doing."

He contacted Shepard with his omni-tool.

"All the mechs are taken care of Shepard. You won't believe what just happened."

"Are you sure all of them were taken care of? I'm with Archangel now and one of them is right in front of us, pinning us down!" Shepard answered, and sounds of minigun fire was heard from the tool.

"All of them. All 7 are here, deactivated. They must have had that one before I arrived. Do you need help?"

"I don't think you can make it in time. We can take care of it. You'll have your hands full soon."

"What do you mean?" David and Lia looked at each other in surprise.

"Eclipse lines are weakening here. I think some of them are coming up there to check on those mechs."

"Don't worry about us. Lia reprogrammed these mechs' IFF systems. They'll take care of the Eclipse. And if I see any reinforcements coming your way, they'll die as well.

"Glad to hear it. These mercs don't want to give up yet..."

_***2 hours later, aboard the**_

_**Normandy***_

"Is he going to live?" David asked Shepard about Garrus.

"Doc says he'll be fine." Sheaprd answered.

"I see Normandy is back too. But I'm not sure working with Cerberus is a good idea Shepard. I've seen what they've done before."

"I know. I don't trust them, but right now, they are the only ones who see the truth and don't ignore it. The council is still skeptical about the Reapers, or pretend to be, even after I sacrificed so many people to save them from one. Anderson can't do much, he's just one voice among three others."

The were both silent for a moment. They knew they agreed on this. Then David decided to explain something.

"Look Shepard, if I knew that Archangel was on your team two years ago, I would've helped him any way I could. And what did I do? I gave the Eclipse all they needed to take him down."

"Don't blame yourself David. We all make mistakes."

"Yeah... you're right, but I make a lot of mistakes. I thought I could help Lia if I hired her, and today I almost got her killed. Everyone that starts to trust me, ends up dead, kidnapped or worse. The best plan I could think of when we went to stop the Eclipse from activating those mechs was "Ill distract them and you run to the cargo bay". She trusted me and got shot. She was lucky I gave her a shield generator."

"Stop hitting yourself. Well, not the best plan I have heard, but it worked didn't it?"

They both were silent again.

"What have you been doing during past 4 years David? I'm sorry I didn't speak to you for that long, I thought I needed to forget about my past, but I've seen much worse now."

"I kept serving in MADE. Went on some crazy missions against mercs, pirates, Cerberus and what not. After you died, I kept pushing the Alliance to admit that the Reaper threat was real, but I didn't even get to speak to the council. They booted me out of the MADE a year ago and I left the Alliance completely. I figured that if I started freelancing all around the galaxy, I could've found some facts that the Reapers were real, but after one year of searching I still found nothing."

"They are real, I assure you. And they are involved in human colony abductions. I think the Collectors are working for them and abducting the colonies."

"Collectors? That's... unexpected. They never attacked whole colonies before."

"That's what I'm investigating now. Why just humans? I'm going to stop them from abducting the next colony. The Illusive Man has some kind of plan to pinpoint the next colony to get hit, and I found a Salarian professor here on Omega that can find a way for us to survive the encounter."

David started thinking about how he could help Shepard, and suddenly remembered something.

"If you need brilliant minds Shepard, I know another Salarian here that can help you. His name is Mordin..."

"Solus. Worked on modifying the genophage. Former STG. He's the professor I meant. Cerberus has dossiers about everyone I'll need to stop the collectors. I'm surprised you weren't mentioned."

"I might have skills, but I haven't really used them since I left the Alliance. Well, not in a way that Cerberus would know."

"I'll need someone like you for this mission. I'll talk to the Illusive Man about you. Meanwhile you should get to know the Normandy crew, you might have to stay on this ship if you decide to help me. And talk to Lia on the crew deck. She wasn't exactly happy about your plan."


	6. The Normandy: Meeting Lia and TIM

"I didn't say anything about staying."

"If you think the Reapers are real, why shouldn't you fight them?"

"I... Well I guess you're right, I'll think about it. Go talk to your Illusive Man. I'll take a walk around the ship."

"Glad you decided to help."

Shepard went to the briefing room.

"I would advise introducing yourself to the helmsman, Jeff Moreau here on the CIC floor." EDI's voice was heard around him.

"And who are you?" David didn't expect anyone to be near him at the moment.

"I am the ship's Artificial Inteligence. The Normandy crew refers to me as EDI."

"Thank you... EDI, but I know where I'm going first."

He walked into the elevator and took it to the crew deck.

_Working with aliens, an AI on the ship... Either Cerberus has really changed, or this is going to be one tough mission_. The elevator door opened and he stepped on the crew deck.

He turned right and entered the mess hall. Lia was there, asking the chef if there were any dextro-amino nutrients aboard.

"Lia, you're on a top secret Cerberus vessel with Commander Shepard in charge, and the first thing you ask for is food?" he asked as he walked up to her.

She turned to him.

"No. The first thing I asked for was a clearance to the engineering, but Operative Lawson disagrees."

After a moment of silence, she continued "I haven't eaten since we left the Citadel, this ship doesn't have any dextro-amino food, and I almost got killed because some bosh'tet had a brilliant plan of me running through fifteen Eclipse mercs!"

David knew she was right, and didn't try to explain himself. "I know Lia. I make a lot of bad calls. I think it's best if we just part ways. I'll give you all the credits I have and drop you off on the Citadel. Or if I'm allowed on the Normandy, I'll ask Shepard to take you there."

Lia continued, as if she didn't hear what David said. "I barely held myself from yelling at you when you entered the cargo hold of the STS... Keelah I wanted to shoot you right in your head, but now that I think about it, there wasn't any other way for us to succeed. I don't blame you."

"Well you should!" David's voice started getting louder, "you almost died because of me. You just got lucky."

Lia felt that she needed to comfort him somehow, but didn't know what to say.

"David I... I don't think I want to leave you. I liked the excitement of battle, being on the edge of death. Yeah, I know it sounds very strange from me, but I'm not as helpless as you might think. I want to go with you."

David didn't expect her to say something like that. She was just a girl, and she was so scared when they first stepped on Omega.

"No Lia, I won't risk your life. You're still young, you have your whole life ahead of you."

"And what will I do with my life? All I can do is stay on the migrant fleet and maybe fix a malfunctioning water pump on some rusty ship. Plus, I've seen a lot of humans on Citadel, and I could tell their age just by looking at them. I don't think you're much older than me. It's not up for a debate. I'm staying with you."

"But..." He thought for a moment and knew she wouldn't change her mind. He actually liked the idea of her staying with him. "Well, I guess nothing I say will change your mind. Alright, you can follow me. I'll go see some crew members now. Wanna come with me?"

"Of course."

David started walking towards Miranda's office.

"I don't think you'll like her attitude. Well, unless humans find that kind of cold hearted attitude attractive." Lia told David on the way.

The doors opened and they entered the room.

"Ah it's you." Miranda said in her uncaring tone "I thought you might come to see me."

"A simple "hello" would be nice." David crossed his arms.

"David Grayson. Formed Alliance MADE, excellent marksman, adept biotic, advanced piloting skills," Miranda resumed " terrible leader and known for disobeying orders. The Illusive Man sent me intel about you, and your friend.

Lia'Vael nar Ulnay. Nothing significant. Advanced hacking abilities, and average sniper rifle marksmanship. That's all you've demonstrated when you sneaked out of the flotilla."

"How do you know about that?" Lia sounded worried.

"Cerberus has agents everywhere."

"Wait you sneaked out of the flotilla?" David didn't expect this from her.

"Yeah. I followed one of my friends on her pilgrimage three years ago. She found corrupted LOKI mechs on a derelict ship we wanted to salvage, and we had to defend ourselves. She gave me a sniper rifle so I would stay out of direct fire. Learned how to handle a gun there."

"What happened afterwards?"

"We cleared the way to the bridge and disabled security protocols. That disabled the mechs too. The ship was operational after some repairs we made, but the crew was killed. So she brought the ship back to the migrant fleet and completed her pilgrimage.

We were judged by the ship captain, her gift was accepted, but my pilgrimage was delayed as a punishment."

"So this is technically your second pilgrimage?"

"Technically, yes."

_***Meanwhile in the briefing room***_

Shepard entered the room and told EDI to connect him to the Illusive Man.

The briefing table slowly integrated itself with the floor and Shepard stepped on it. After a few seconds, he saw a familiar silhouette.

"Shepard. I take it you want to talk about your old associate, David Grayson." The Illusive Man said, and smoked his cigarette…


	7. He's alive!

**Note: Sorry for all those silly mistakes I made in first 3 chapters and after. It is after all my first fanfic. Ill try not to repeat those mistakes again.**

"What do you know about him?" Shepard didn't like that the Illusive Man was always aware of what he was doing, but he knew that he couldn't do anything about it.

"We've been monitoring his progress for some time, and he seems like a promising figure," he took a drag on his cigarette and continued, "but, before I decide if he'll be useful in your mission, I need to test him first."

"Test him? How?"

"Cerberus has it's methods Shepard."

Shepard's face showed obvious distrust towards the Illusive Man, who, in turn didn't seem to notice it.

"Now, I have reports that you recruited everyone I advised. Good. You'll need them for your next assignment. I need you to go to Horizon. We calculate that it's the next human colony to be attacked..."

_***Meanwhile, on the crew deck***_

David and Lia left Miranda's office. The decided to go to the CIC floor.

"She's not really a peoples person," David said, while walking to the elevator, "but can't argue with a figure like that..."

"Told you." Lia responded, she enjoyed being right.

They saw a turian going to the elevator from the other side. It was the Archangel... or rather, Garrus.

"Garrus?" David asked him as they met each other in front of the elevator. "You survived! And you look gre... oh..." He saw the scar on his face.

"First, who the hell are you, second, how do you know my name, and third - do my scars look that bad?" Garrus rained questions on him with his usual, laid back tone.

"Uhm... I think you should see Shepard. He can answer you without pissing you off I'm sure. He's in a "briefing room" somewhere on the CIC floor."

They took the elevator to the CIC, where they were greeted by Yeoman Chambers, who had just returned on her post. She introduced herself and gave them the information they wanted.

"Nice too meet you too Ms. Chambers. I'll go see Mordin right away." David said and left.

Chambers gave Garrus directions to the briefing room and he left as well. Only she and Lia'Vael were left.

There was an awkward silence. Chambers and Lia were staring at each other for some time. Chambers seemed particullary interested in Lia, she was one of the few quarians she had seen.

Finally, the quarian broke the silence. "So... uum... what model is that... omni-tool?"

_***Mordin's lab***_

David entered the lab. He was pleased to see another familiar face.

"Mordin?"

Mordin looked at him for a second, then continued working. "David Grayson? Your presence here unexpected."

"I've been dealing with a lot of unexpected today. So, I heard the plague is cured. You still did it." David said, smiling.

"Couldn't have done it without Shepard. And you too. Bringing medical supplies in the slurms risky. You took that risk. Thank you."

"No problem doc. You were doing a noble thing in there. Plus, killing mercs is always fun. They never think that I wasn't always a trader."

He walked up to Mordin and stared at his table.

"So what are you working on?"

"Collectors use seeker swarms to paralyze humans. Team needs protection. Just found out how to do it. These armour enhancements will hide the team from the swarms."

Suddenly the door on the left side of the room opened and Shepard walked in with Garrus.

"So you're telling me that this guy and that quarian girl killed several Eclipse squads and 7 YMIR mechs?" Garrus asked Shepard as they were walking towards David. "You're kidding, right?"

David didn't wait for Shepard to answer. "Technically, I killed only one squad. Lia reprogrammed the mechs and they did the rest."

Garrus kept walking towards him.

"Well, in that case..." he stopped in front of David, "I heard that humans "shake hands" when they meet. Garrus Vakarian. Nice to meet you."

"David Grayson. Nice to meet you too."

After the handshake Garrus started asking questions again.

"So how exactly did the quarian reprogram the mechs?" He was looking at David.

"Uhm... I think it's better if you don't know."

"Sounds interesting. I'll go ask her myself." He said and walked towards the CIC.

"Help me out Shepard!" David exclaimed.

"You can try to stop him if you want to."

"Wouldn't do that if I were you..." Garrus shouted back from the door and exited the room. David rolled his eyes, sighed and followed Garrus to try to make himself seem less embarrassing in front of him.

"He's hiding something?" Mordin looked at Shepard.

"Long story" Shepard answered, smiling. "Have you found a way for us to survive the swarms?"

"Yes," He answered and showed him the schematics of the armour enhancements.

After Mordin explained everything, Shepard went to the CIC to see how others were doing. He saw David, Lia and Garrus talking about something.

David's face was resting in his hands with embarissment and Lia was saying something to Garrus, who was barely holding himself from laughing.

"By the spirits, is that really the best you could come up with? You made her run to the ship without weapons?" Garrus asked David.

"Hey she had shields! And a Mantis rifle!" He tried to "justify" his actions. He seemed to be less worried now, probably it was something Garrus or Lia said.

"Right, you made her run right behind mercs, armed with a rifle that shoots only once before ejecting a clip." Garrus said, turning to Shepard "Shepard, are you sure this is the guy who killed those mercs?"

"He may not be the best ground team leader, but he's a great soldier and biotic. He can fly fighters and shuttles too."

"Alright Shepard I believe you... Him, not so much." Garrus pointed at David.

"That makes two of us." Lia joined the conversation.

"Who's side are you on?!" David asked, and gave Lia a "I'm going to kill you" look.

"Not. Yours." Lia answered, crossing her hands.

Shepard let out a slight giggle.

"I'm sure you all like discussing combat strategies, but I have some news..."


	8. Weakness

We are going to Horizon, Cerberus thinks it's the next colony to get hit. Fortunatelly, Mordin ucame up with a way for us to survive the swarms. Garrus, gear up and get ready."

"I took a rocket to the face less than four hours ago and you want me to be ready for battle again..." Garrus protested.

"You look just fine to me."

Garrus sighed, got up and went to the armory.

"So, I guess we're not coming?" David guessed after seeing that Shepard told Garrus to gear up, but not them.

"I wanted to talk about that. As much as I would like you to be with us, Illusive Man did not authorize you for my team. I'm afraid you'll have to stay here, on Omega. I'm sure you'll understand."

"I understand. Maybe it's for the best. If I find anything about the Collectors or the Reapers, I'll forward it to you." David signaled Lia to leave, who obeyed without saying a word.

"Don't you want to say good bye to some of the crew?" Shepard stopped him.

"I find it easier to just leave. You can tell them I said good bye after I'm gone. We'll meet again." He said and left the Normandy with Lia.

They watched as the Normandy undocked and left Omega. Lia was trying to understand David's personality. Sometimes he seemed so sentimental, and sometimes it seemed like he didn't have any feelings at all.

"I can't stay on Omega anymore," David said calmly, without looking away from the Normandy. "After what I did, there are probably a lot of people around here who want me dead."

"What are we going to do next?"

"We?" David looked at Lia, "so you were serious about staying with me."

Lia didn't have second thoughts about it. She nodded.

David crossed his hands and stared at Lia. This creeped her out a little. _What's he doing?_

"There is one thing I noticed about you," David said after a few seconds. "You practically killed dozens of mercs when you reprogrammed those mechs. Most people would have regretted that, but you seem to be fine."

Lia had been thinking about that since the adrenaline rush of running for her life was over. Their deaths were on her, and she felt sorry for them, but she didn't regret it. Those mercs chose their lives and probably did terrible things while they were alive. To her, their deaths were more like justice. But then again, they were living beings just like her…

"I'd rather not talk about it..." she found all this hard to explain with words.

"See, that's why you cannot stay with me. Those people weren't the first ones to die, and they won't be the last. If you follow me, you'll see much worse than that, and I don't think you'll handle it."

"I can! I just need a little time to get used to all this." Lia kept pushing him.

David sighed. It seemed like she wasn't even listening to him. He wanted her to stay with him, but he knew that if she did, she would probably end up dead too.

"Look Lia, I'm not changing my mind. We'll do as I said on the Normandy - we'll go to the Citadel, I'll give you credits for a ship that you'll take back to the Flotilla and I'll get on with my life." David thought Lia would agree, after all she's been through today, but she wasn't giving up.

"Just let me stay for a while. If I ..."

"We'll do as I said." David stopped her. "We can't get to the STS now, too risky. We'll take a transport ship."

Lia still wanted to argue, but she knew it was hopeless now. When David hired a cab and told her to get in, she just complied.

They were quiet. Lia would sometimes look at David, who was nervously playing some melody with his fingers. She suddenly started thinking about how weird it would be to have five fingers instead of three and chuckled.

"What's so funny?" David looked at her.

"Oh nothing. I was just thinking about how hard it would be to have five fingers... I don't understand how do you control them so easily?"

David looked confused for a second. Then he chuckled too.

"Well, I don't understand how salarians, quarians, and turians do everyday tasks with three fingers," he answered, "it must be hard to type, for example."

"Nothing's hard with Adaptive Haptics. I've seen human keyboards though. I always wondered how you typed on those without confusing fingers with each other. Quarian keyboards used to have much less buttons."

"We had no problem with it. I think having five fingers is much better than having three of them. It's faster, more convenient, and you can use more complicated tech."

"Well, if having five fingers is better, why do most of the Citadel races have three?" Lia asked after thinking everything over.

David admitted his defeat by smiling and started thinking again. After Lia realized that she won, she looked out of the window.

"Half of Omega's thugs are probably hunting us now," David said after a few seconds, "and we are here, arguing about fingers..."

Lia looked at him, trying to understand what he was trying to say.

"So?"

"So, I thought you'd be nervous, scared... but you obviously are not."

"I told you, I can handle this kind of life." Lia hoped that this was her chance to convince him.

"Even if you can, it's too dangerous."

"Just let me stay with you for some time. You'll see that I'm not as helpless as you think."

David didn't say anything. This confused Lia even more.

After a few minutes, the cab landed near the transport ships. They left the cab and headed towards one of the ships.

"This ship doesn't go to the Citadel." Lia said after reading the destination of the ship.

"Well, if you're going to stay with me, you won't need a ship anymore. So I figured that we should go to Illium to get our new assignment." David grinned.

Lia knew what this meant. She was staying with him...


	9. The broker

**Note: Sorrry for the long delay, I've been very busy last week and didn't have a lot of time to write/edit. Future chapters should be uploaded more frequently.**

**As always, reviews are welcome, betas are even more welcome.**

**Thanks to a quick beta by Amiee some of the serious issues like head hopping in the middle of a scene are mostly resolved. Some issues remain and will be resolved in future chapters.**

Enjoy :)

David and Lia bought tickets from a kiosk nearby, and went aboard the ship. The ship was pretty big, it had six decks, with dozens of rooms on every deck, most of them designed for four people, some of them for two. They headed towards the room seventy nine.

The corridors were crowded. "Stay close," David warned Lia. Some people stared at her as they walked to their room, a quarian was a rare sight on Omega. She got nervous and moved closer to David. He noticed this and chuckled.

"Getting a little scared, are we?" He said in a mocking manner.

Lia stayed quiet, keeping her position beside David. Soon they entered the room seventy nine. It was a small room, with two small beds, a table, and a window overlooking the port engines. This room reminded her of her home aboard the Ulnay. She remembered her parents, who'd died during an accident, her friends, who were still on the Ulnay and Kenn, who was like a younger brother to her ….

"You still hungry?" David asked, sitting down on the bed.

Lia got a little angry. She hadn't eaten for almost a day and he was asking if she was hungry...

"Of course you are," David answered his question himself and ordered quarian and human food from the console on the table.

They were quiet. Both of them were very tired. They watched the engines from the windows, listening to their humming, as the ship slowly left Omega.

"This room reminds me of my home..." Lia broke the silence. "I used to have my own room. Not many quarians have that luxury."

David looked at her, surprise furrowing his brow. She blushed under her suit, realizing he'd not been expecting her to open up to him.

"How come you had that luxury?"

"My parents were skilled engineers," Lia became more confident after seeing that David was interested, "probably the best on Ulnay. They saved the ship from destruction several times, and sometimes they were sent to other ships that needed their expertise, so they were given a bigger quarters as a sign of gratitude. I was so proud of them, wanted to be like them..."

"Was?"

Lia paused and took a deep breath. "They died two years ago."

"Why... did they die?" He asked quietly, almost mumbling, worried that he might be venturing into the forbidden part of her memories.

"It was an accident. They died while repairing cooling systems... I'd rather spare the details, it's hard to talk about." Lia didn't want to tell him how her mother got stabbed with a pipe that came flying after the cooling system overloaded, or how a liquid nitrogen tank fell on her father who tried to get her out.

She closed her eyes to clear her mind. These were some of the most painful memories, but she managed to stop them from taking over.

"I know it's hard. My parents died as well." David said, watching as Lia laid on the bed, "They were soldiers, space marines. After I was born, they tried to give up the military life, but couldn't. I grew up on ships since I was seven, even my biotic training was held on a space station. My mother died on a mission when I was fifteen, and my father raised me till I was nineteen. Then he was sent on a recon mission, and his whole squad was lost... even bodies weren't found."

"Do you have any siblings?" Lia asked without raising her head. She wanted to learn as much about him as possible.

"My parents told me that I would have had a twin sister, but there were complications during birth, and only I could be saved."

There was an awkward silence again. Both of them lying on their beds, barely keeping themselves from falling asleep.

"Do you have anyone waiting for you on the Migrant Fleet?" David asked to keep themselves awake until the food would be delivered.

The fact that David was actually interested in getting to know her made Lia feel better. "A few friends. I was born during one child policy, so I don't have any siblings."

"Speaking of friends... that quarian on Omega, Kenn, you two were close?"

She tried to understand what he meant by "close".

"Oh nothing romantic," she answered, after realizing the meaning of the word, "We grew up together. Our quarters were next to each other and our families were very close. He's younger than me, so I was like an older sister to him. He never had a strong character, but Omega really broke him. He hugged me... he's never done that before."

"Omega changes people," David answered promptly.

"I was going to start mercenary work there before we met," Lia said.

He looked at her. "You wouldn't last a day. What were you thinking?"

"I was desperate! I thought I would meet Kenn on Omega and we could help each other out... but now I know I was wrong. If you hadn't helped me I would probably be on the streets of Omega , begging for help, or dead."

David sighed. "Is that why you decided to come with me? You feel safer with me?"

"I... well, I probably shouldn't, after you almost got me killed, but I do." Lia felt like there was another reason, but couldn't explain what it was.

David shook his head. "You might've been safer on Omega."

"I wouldn't have you on Omega." Lia mumbled unintentionally. She didn't know why she said that. She quickly looked at David and was relieved after seeing that he didn't hear anything.

A few hours later.

Lia and David exited the ship and went to hire a cab.

"Well, didn't have to fight anyone on the ship this time." David smiled."I think this day started off pretty well."

Lia was thinking about what she said on the ship. She was embarrassed, but was glad that David didn't hear those words.

"Don't get me wrong, but what you ate on the ship was one of the most disgusting things I've seen," David said while ordering a cab from a nearby console. "I mean, that paste looked like... well, I don't wanna say it."

Lia finally broke free from her thoughts.

"It's not really that bad. Quarians mostly eat pastified food, so we're used to it."

The cab arrived and they got in. David entered the destination in the console in the center of the skycar.

"Where are we going?" Lia asked as the skycar lifted from the ground.

"I have a contact here. You can't come with me to see her, but I know a good bar near her office where you can wait."

"I guess asking about this contact would be stupid?"

David smiled and nodded. "You're catching up."

They arrived to their destination. David gave Lia the directions to the bar, told her to wait there and walked up the stairs to his contact's office. The asari sitting behind a desk at the end of the stairs recognized him and opened the door to the office. David entered.

There was an asari standing on the opposite side of the room with her back facing him.

"David. I've been waiting for you." She seemed anxious.

"Something wrong Liara?" David asked after seeing how anxious she was.

Liara turned to the other asari in the room and nodded. The asari bowed and left the room. David realized that something serious was going on.

"I have some troubling news," Liara said, sitting down on the chair behind the desk. "Take a seat."

"I prefer to stand. Just tell me what the problem is."

"You helped me a great deal by assisting me in hunting down the Shadow Broker's agent. I owe you for that." She said while typing something on her computer. "You've been one of my most valuable assets, and a good friend, but you're in great danger."

"What else is new? I'm always in danger." David tried to defuse the tension that was building up.

Liara shook her head. "The Broker has sent another agent. Not for me this time. You're the target."

David quickly realized the danger he was in. To his surprise, the first thing he thought about was Lia. He felt guilty for allowing her to stay with him, now she was in danger too.

"Are you sure about this?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't tell you anything. This agent isn't just another spy, he's an assassin. Ruthless, sadistic, and very good at his job. Shadow Broker sees you as a serious threat, and wants to get rid of you."

David sighed. I stepped in it this time…

"What can you tell me about him?"

"Not much. He leaves no trace unless he wants to. These were his only victims whose bodies were found." Liara showed him two pictures on her console. One was a salarian, his limbs were all broken and his head was half torn off. The other one was an asari, gutted, her organs lying around on the floor and she was pinned on a wall with two combat knives.

"Holy shit..." David's eyes widened and he sat down. He'd seen a lot of horrible things in his life, but this was unexpected, even for him. "He's a sick bastard, I can say that much."

"The assassin, if you can call him that, is a turian. His current name is unknown. He doesn't directly work for the Broker, but is hired by him to take care of those who compromise his business. He's very hard to track, changes his ID after every hit he does, and the Broker does a very good job erasing all the evidence. He's been spying on you for at least three days, using your ship's surveillance systems and mercenaries, and the Broker probably gave him all the information about you."

"If he wants me dead, why didn't he kill me already?" All this sounded strange to him.

"I find that strange too. He isn't like any assassin I've seen. Judging from these pictures, he tortures, then kills. "

"And he probably wants to do to me what he did to these two." David looked at the pictures again, worried that whoever did this was going to do the same to him. "What do you think I should do?"

Liara looked at David with pity. He was able to kill one of the Broker's top agents, and has lived through impossible situations many times, but she wasn't sure if he could survive this.

"Hiding isn't an option David." She said after a few seconds. "You know better than most that nobody can hide from the Shadow Broker. In this case, the best defense is offense. You must try to kill him before he kills you."

"How do I kill someone if I don't know where, or who he is? He probably knows everything about me, he has all the advantage."

"I'll give you anything I find on him, but you must leave Illium as soon as possible, the longer you stay on the same location, the faster he'll find you. Your unstable personality will make it harder for him to predict your next move, you should use that in your advantage." Liara got up and walked to the window overlooking the trading district. "I believe you have a... special relationship with Lia'Vael. She could be used to manipulate you…"

"Hold on," David interrupted, "why do you think that I have a "special" relationship with her?"

"I don't see any other explanation of why you allowed her to join you." Liara shrugged. "Whatever the reason, she's your weakness."

"What are you getting at Liara?" David knew that she had a plan.

"You can't take her with you until the assassin is dead, it's too dangerous for both of you. If you agree, I can hide her safely on Illium, but only for a few days. Eventually, they will find her."

David thought about what Liara said. She was right, if he took her with him, Lia would only slow him down and there was a big chance she'd die. If he left her here and the assassin found her, she could be used to get to him, or worse. It was a tough choice.

"Alright. I'll leave her here," David said after a few seconds, "but I'll need to know her exact location, in case the assassin gets to her first."

Liara nodded. "I will also assign one of my agents to protect her."

David got up and walked to the door. "Keep her safe."

"Good luck David. I don't know if you believe in any of this, but goddess be with you."

David stopped. "I'm gonna need more than that." He mumbled without turning around and left.


	10. The escape

Lia was waiting for David in the Eternity, sitting at the bar. She felt awkward, everyone else was drinking something and she didn't have a single credit on her to order anything. She also noticed that a turian at the table in the lounge was eyeing her, which made her feel even more awkward. Lia wasn't used to getting attention from strangers, and didn't like the feeling. She rested her head on her hand and closed her eyes, trying to ignore everything and everyone around her. When she opened her eyes, the turian had gotten up and was walking towards her. _If only something would stop him from getting here..._

Suddenly, like out of nowhere, a human in a black mercenary outfit appeared next to her.

"David?" Lia asked in surprise. She looked back at the turian, who was already falling back to his table. She smiled after seeing that nobody was going to bother her anymore.

"Why so surprised?" David smirked, sitting next to Lia. "You seem to be getting some attention," he looked back at the turian, "and not the negative kind."

"How can you be so sure? Only time someone would pay attention to me was when some CSec officer wanted me to get lost or if someone was accusing me of stealing something.."

David smiled. "I've met enough turians to know if one's going to shoot you in the head or invite you for a drink. But I think I might have scared him a little." He chuckled.

"What did you do to scare him anyway?" Lia giggled.

"We've uh... met before, when he was drunk. Didn't turn out well for him."

"What will it be today babe?" The asari bartender, who they failed to notice before, asked, standing against David.

He looked at her. "Nothing. I need to be at my best today."

The bartender threw him a surprised look. "Ah. You have a job to complete?"

"You can say that."

"If you say so." She said and walked to the other end of the bar.

"Follow me, and disable any communication devices you have on." David suddenly said, rising from the chair.

"What? Why?" Lia jumped on her feet too.

"Follow. Me." David insisted and walked towards the exit.

"What's going on?" Lia asked, but didn't get an answer, so she just followed him.

They went outside and David pointed at an asari standing near a store.

"I don't have time to chat. See that asari in dark brown outfit? Her name is Lisea T'Klaas, you can trust her. Talk to her, and she'll explain everything to you, but you must do as she says."

_What just happened?_

" What will she explain?"

"I have to leave. Talk to her." He put his hand on her shoulder. Lia looked at him and felt that she was blushing again. David looked into her eyes. "You've trusted me so far, you have to trust me now."

"Last time I blindly trusted you, you almost got me killed." Lia knew she was right.

David sighed. "And I'm trying to prevent putting your life in danger again."

"Dave is going to hunt down an assassin who wants to butcher him alive, he wants to keep you out of this, so you're staying with me to hide." An annoyed female voice was heard next to them. It was Lisea. She'd walked up to them without them noticing. "You could've just told her the truth."

_An assassin? But why wasn't he telling me this?_ Lia was getting worried and crossed her hands just like she used to do whenever she was nervous.

"I was trying to make her stay with you without frightening her to death, but now that's obviously not an option." David answered. "You'll be safe here," he turned to Lia, "I'm not changing my mind."

It seemed cowardly to Lia to stay, but she wasn't sure she wanted to go either. She's disagreed with him before, but this time he seemed to be confident about his decision, so it was probably for the best if she just did what he said.

"I understand why you want to leave her here," Lisea told David before Lia could say anything. "She's obviously inexperienced, but why do you want me to stay? I can be of more help if I'm with you. After all, we took down the last agent together, we can take this one."

"I need someone I can trust to protect her in case of danger. You are one of the few people I can trust, that's why I asked Liara to assign you to her."

Lisea sighed. "I still don't like this idea, but good luck. I'll keep her safe."

"Wait, I didn't say I was staying!" Lia protested. Who were they to make desicions for her?!

"Shut the hell up!" David snarled, almost yelling. Lia stepped back in fear, she'd never seen him like this before. His fists were clenched as if they were ready to beat her any moment now. Suddenly his face changed, showing disgrace and guilt, and he quickly looked away.

"Fuck..." he shook his head and walked away.

Lia jumped forward to catch him. He was the only person that didn't pick on her on every opportunity, even cared about her, but what happened now? She wanted an explination, but Lisea's hand suddenly caught hers. She tried to break free but couldn't.

"Don't judge him Lia, it's not his fault. He's suffering from post-concussion syndrome. Follow me, and I'll explain everything."

Lia angrily freed her hand from Lisea and looked back to find David, but he was already gone from sight.

"Post-concussion syndrome?" Lia asked after thinking everything over.

"Irritability is one of the symptoms," Lisea continued as she walked to a a

Skycar nearby. Lia followed her. "He's been suffering from it for more than eight months. I was surprised to see that he lasted that long without one of his "moments"." They got in the car. Lisea took the driver's seat and started the car. "The other symtoms he has are occasional headaches, problems with sleep, mood swings and slight mental instability."

Lia remembered that David was changing his mind and attitude very often.

"How do you know all that?" She asked.

"We worked together for five months. To put it simple, we have the same boss. You should've seen the first time he had his "moment" with me." Lisea said with a grin. "I punched him so hard in return that he was out cold for two hours. When he woke up, he was apologizing for a whole hour, until I told him it was alright."

Lia felt sorry for him, but when she imagined Lisea punching David in the face and him falling unconscious, she couldn't help but chuckle.

Lisea looked at her and smiled, seeing that she was feeling better.

"How did he get the concussion in the first place?" Lia asked.

"He doesn't remember, lost all memory of the event. He's one fucked up SOB."

_And I wanted to follow him around? What was I thinking?_

Lia looked out of the window. Illium reminded her of the Citadel. She thought about why David wanted her to hide. He really cared about her, otherwise he would just forget about her existence and leave her without a warning. Still, all these precautions seemed too much for just one assassin, not that she knew much about this kind of things.

"What's so special about this assassin?" She suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Lisea's eyes glimpsed at her in surprise. "Hmm. For one, he is hired by a very dangerous organization. We don't know anything about him, not even his name, but we do know that none of his targets have survived. We don't know if he's alone, or if he has any connections. That makes him a very dangerous enemy. We need to be very careful, at least until we have some info about him. Don't worry about Dave, he can handle himself. You, on the other hand, can be his liability, that's why you're staying. It's strange though..."

"What is?"

"That he actually came in contact with you. More than that, he's worried about you. I always thought he was a lone wolf. Shows what I know."

**Two days later, in the Imir system, aboard the Excelsior, the ship David bought the day he left Illium. Details will be in the next chapter.**

David hurried to the cockpit to answer the incoming communication.

"Tell me you have good news Liara." He said, sitting down on the pilot's seat.

"I won't be able to maintain safe comm with you for long, I don't know how much longer I can keep it hidden."

"Alright, then make it fast."

"I'll start with the good news. I've found out his name and registry information. I'll be able to track him more accurately now. His name is Colius Brax."

"What's the bad news?"

"He isn't working alone. He's cooperating with the Eclipse, and possibly with the Blue Suns. Also, he owns a ship ships, a frigate, heavily armed, crew proabably consisting of Eclipse mercenaries."

"Hmm." David started evaluating the situation.

"One more thing." Liara interrupted his thoughts. "Lia's cover has been compromised. I had to smuggle her and Lisea off Illium a few hours ago."

"So soon?" David knew they couldn't hide for long, but he didn't expect them to be found in two days. _Hope they're alright..._ "Where are they now?"

"I sent an encrypted file to you. Everything you want to know is in there."

David opened the file. There were coordinates of Lia's destination and the name of the ship she was traveling on. It was a cargo ship headed to an asari colony, and it looked like it was still a few hours away from its destination. There were Colius's last known coordinates too, but they were a day old.

"They were supposed to check in every thirty minutes, but I haven't received their signal for two hours. They might be maintaining comm silence, or they could be in danger." Liara continued.

"Sometimes I wish I'd never met you, Liara. My life would be so much easier." He muttered after reading the file.

"Then you would've missed all the fun, and your talents would've gone to waste."

David grinned, shaking his head. "I don't think chasing a ghost for two days qualifies as fun. Alright, I'll go check on Lia and Lisea."

"Good luck. Lisea's communicator is using encrypted frequency Beta 7."

"I'll remodulate." David disabled the comm, entered the coordinates of the relay and set the ship on autopilot.

He rested his head on the seat and thought about Lia. Lisea could take care of her, but he still wanted to go there and see Lia for himself, make sure she was alright. David closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His emotions wouldn't help them if they were in danger.

A few minutes and one relay jump later he was in the Imir system, where the freighter should've been by then. It was there, but there were two other ships near its location. David didn't have patience to get there on normal engines.

"Alright, let's try something else." He muttered. He set a course towards the freighter, and after making sure that path was clear of major debris, activated the FTL. After a few seconds of FTL travel he jumped out in visual range of the freighter. There were two armed frigates around it, firing on it, but not destroying it. David fired two shots from forward canons to get their attention.

"Lisea are you here?" He asked over the comm a moment before one of the frigates fired back. The Excelsior shook violently as the shell hit its shields.

"Dave? What the hell are you doing here?" Lisea's voice was heard.

David rested in relief, seeing that she was alive. "I was passing by. What's the situation over there?" He asked and headed towards the attacking frigate at max speed. It fired a few missiles the Excelsior.

"Eclipse boarding parties are taking over the ship. They're looking for us, but we've managed to hold them off for a few minutes."

"How's Lia?"

"She's... wounded, and needs medical help. Can you get us out of here?"

David's hands froze after hearing that Lia was wounded. He was only awoken from his thoughts by a loud bang, as one of the missiles the Eclipse frigate fired hit the Excelsior, disabling it's barriers. "Get to the nearest escape pod and tell me it's dimensions!"

"Got it. You might want to know this - that assassin of yours is on one of those ships, and he's been drilling my brain over the comm.."

David headed towards the other frigate, fired a barrage of high caliber mass accelerated rounds on it and flew past it to take a closer look. He'd never seen such design before. The other ship was clearly Eclipse, but this one didn't look like anything he'd seen before. _Probably Colius's ship_. He could clearly see the name on it. Direct translation of the word was "Vengeance", a strange name for an assassin's ship...

Lock on alarm sounded. The Eclipse ship fired three missiles. David disabled the main engines and turned the ship around, while maintaining its speed and direction. The Excelsior was "sliding" backwards in space, facing the missiles. David prepared to shoot down the missiles, but suddenly, the Vengeance fired from its point defense turrets, destroying the missiles before David.

He looked at this with his jaw dropped. If it was Colius, why did he save him? This didn't make sense... but whatever happened, the frigates stopped firing at hi for a moment.

"I'm near the escape pod." Lisea's voice was heard over the comm. "It's about three meters in diameter, four meters on length."

"Good. It'll fit. How's Lia holding up?"

"She's alive. And what do you mean it'll fit?"

"Get inside and eject. I'll..." David was interrupted by a sound of explosion behind the Excelsior. "Shit, they're targeting the engines. Eject, now!"

"On it."

David looked at the sensors. This time, it was the Vengeance firing at him. He headed towards the freighter at full speed.

"We've ejected. What's the plan?" Lisea asked.

David checked the sensors again and altered course to intercept the pod. "I'll fly in front of you, open the rear cargo hold door and you'll land inside."

"Well, I guess we've done crazier things..."

Excelsior slowly flew past the pod, swinging around to evade incoming fire. One of the shells hit its port engine, disabling it. The ship destabilized and started leaning on left side.

"Damn it!" David exclaimed. "I need to slow down before I start spinning around. Landing will be a little rough." He opened the cargo bay door. The Excelsior flew in front of the pod. "Rear cameras are down, I can't see you. Tell me which side I should turn to." He said over the comm.

"Got it." Lisea was quiet for a moment. "Turn a little left... a little more... wait, at this rate we'll end up with you in the cockpit! You must increase your speed!"

"I can't maintain course if I go faster, I only have the starboard engine. But maybe..." He watched the sensors carefully. The pod was eighty meters away. Forty meters, thirty, twenty... David prepared to increase speed. Ten meters, four...

He quickly raised the throttle and closed the cargo hold door. The Excelsior shook violently and started spinning around from too much thrust from the starboard engine.

"Lisea, are you in?" David asked hastily.

"You... are one crazy bastard. We're in. Pressurize this room so I can get Lia some proper treatment."

David quickly complied. "Atmosphere will be back in thirty seconds. Why was Lia so quiet all this time? Are the injuries that serious?"

"It's this damn communicator. Shuts down all ambient noise." Lisea's answer relieved David. "We can talk about it through the intercom when I get out of here. Can you lose the frigates"

"I can't jump to FTL, drive core needs to cool down for a minute or two. They overloaded it when they killed the barriers."

"Are you sure you can survive that long with only one engine?" Lisea asked.

"No. But we'll do it."

The Excelsior was finally stabilized. Suddenly, another shell hit its port side, tearing part of its hull off.

"From the sound of it we're losing structural integrity." Lia's voice was heard through the intercom.

"Are you Okay Lia?" David asked while trying to evade more incoming fire.

"That's an overstatement. Argh!"

"What's wrong?" David almost jumped from the seat.

"She'll be fine, just get us the hell out of here!" Lisea's voice replaced Lia's.

"I'm trying!" David was evading incoming shells, but the lack of one engine made it very difficult. "Brace for impact! I'm going into the asteroid field!" He yelled.

"Without shields? It's a suicide!" Lia shouted through the comm.

"Better than being here in the open. It's our best... wait, what is that?" David looked at the sensors closely. "A massive energy signature is approaching." David paused. "The frigates just jumped out of the system. Wait... it's a ship... it's the Collectors!"

"Stranded in space with the Collectors under our noses. You sure know how to pick your enemies." Lisea said. "What is it doing so far from the Terminus?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. We're getting out of here."

He activated the FTL drive, jumped close to the relay and entered it. The ship disappeared from the system, leaving a trail of blue particles behind.

"We're in the Serpent Nebula. I'll set the course to the Citadel and head to you." David announced after the jump was complete and got up. He walked to the elevator pad and took it do the lower deck, where Lisea and Lia were.


	11. A traitor to find

David walked through a narrow corridor, almost running. As he got closer to the room where Lia was, he heard a sound of footsteps coming from behind him. He quickly turned around, but there was no one there. David kept gazing at the empty corridor for a few seconds, and then continued on to Lia's room, preparing himself for what he might see inside.

The door opened with a hissing noise, revealing two familiar figures. Lia was sitting on a bed, and there were blood stains near her feet. Lisea was standing near a medi-gel dispenser, rubbing her left hand on her right shoulder. They both looked at David as he entered the room.

"I would be thanking you for saving my life," Lia said, "if you weren't the one who put it in danger in the first place you bosh'tet."

David frowned and raised an eyebrow, not expecting her to talk like this.

"We've been through a lot today," Lisea said after noticing the surprised look on David's face. "You'll understand if she's a little edgy."

"She's right." David slowly walked to the bed. "How are you feeling Lia?"

Lia was quiet for a second. "That ship's crew died because I was aboard, I just killed seven people myself, and I just got shot! How do you think I'm feeling?!"

David shook his head. "Nothing that happened on that ship is your fault. If anyone is to blame, it's me." He sat beside Lia. "I'm sorry Lia, for dragging you into this."

Lia just sat there, not saying a word. David got up after not receiving an answer and walked to the door.

"Did they hit you too Lisea?" He looked over his shoulder before opening the door.

"It's just my shoulder. A little medi-gel was enough. We should get Lia to a hospital though, we don't know how serious her infection is."

David nodded. "If you decide to walk around, be careful. There are hull fractures all over the ship." He left the room and walked to the elevator pad.

Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps again.

"Who's there?" He turned around, but the the corridor was empty. David was already turning back to the elevator, when he glimpsed a shady figure right in front of him. His body froze and his heart started beating faster after he saw the figure's face. All of a sudden, the figure dissolved in thin air, leaving only some black smoke in it's place.

David stood there, fearful expression frozen on his face. What he just saw disturbed him... it scared him. _I must he imagining things..._ he thought, as the fear slowly left his body and mind. He stepped on the elevator pad.

_**Several minutes later**_

David was in the pilot's chair, typing something on a virtual keyboard. He heard the footsteps again, but decided not to pay attention this time. The footsteps came closer, David's body was giving up, his breaths became deeper, the fear was taking over again...

"Are you busy?" Lia's voice was heard from behind him.

"Ah, it's you." He looked back, relieved. "I finished my report a few minutes ago, so I have time."

Lia walked beside him. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"No, no, it's just... forget it. How is your wound?"

"Pain is almost gone and I can walk without a problem. If you hadn't arrived in time, we would've been dead. Thank you."

"What triggered the sudden change of heart?" David smiled.

Lia pushed against a wall with her back. "Sympathy." She paused. "And I wanted to tell you to hurry up to the Citadel before, you know, I die of an infection."

David grinned. "We're almost there. Where's Lisea?"

"Walking around the ship. Not that there's much left to walk around."

David pulled up a screen in front of him and slid it on Lia's side. "How about you take a look at these schematics before we dock. I want to refit the ship while repairing it."

Lia shook her head and slowly walked to the screen. "This is what I get for thanking you? You're such a bosh'tet."

"What happened to the quiet, shy Lia I used to know?" David was very surprised by Lia's behaviur.

"If my memory serves, you yelled at her, almost beat her, and left her on Illium." She said without turning away from the screen.

David sighed. "I've been thinking about that during past two days, trying to come up with a way to apologize, and I couldn't think of anything good. I'm sorry Lia, I promise nothing like that will happen again."

"Lisea told me about your condition. I understand how hard it must be to keep your emotions under control."

"It's become easier lately. I'm not going to be like this for much longer." David paused. "I can't imagine how difficult it must've been for you to be on that ship. I grew up as a soldier, killing is my profession, but you..."

Lia sighed and looked down. "The first kill was the most difficult, it wasn't like anything I expected. A thousand thoughts crossed my mind, but I didn't have much time to think, it was either them, or me. Plus, after I saw what Lisea was doing to them, I felt innocent compared to her."

"She does get carried away sometimes."

"Strange..." Lia said in a teasing manner. "She told me the same about you."

David gave her a smirk. "At least now we know that Colius isn't as dangerous as we thought."

"Huh?"

"What he did was, to say the least, unprofessional." Lisea walked in the cockpit. "He couldn't find his target, so he used a luring tactic. He used Eclipse mercenaries to do his work, that's not something I'd expect from a Broker's agent."

"And he had a chance to kill me, but didn't." David added. "Instead, he tried to disable my ship, probably wanted to take me alive. Something isn't right here. The Broker's agents don't do that."

Lisea bent over to see what David was doing. "Whatever is going on with him, it's good news for us. By the way, the showers aren't working."

David pulled up a new screen. "That's because the water tanks are floating in the Imir system. We'll repair everything on the Citadel, when we refit the ship."

"Refit?"

"Show her Lia." He got up from the chair. "I've already arranged a deal with a private company, but I'll need to talk to their representative in person. Meanwhile, Lia should go to a hospital. We must make the most use of our time."

_**Two hours later, in the Zakera wards**_

Lia went inside the Darkstar Lounge, where David told her he was. She saw him sitting at the furthest table from the door, doing something on his omnitool. The music was too loud for her, so she decreased the mic volume in her suit as she walked to him.

"So, how is the Excelsior doing?" Lia aked, sitting down next to him.

"She's going to be ready by tomorrow evening." David stared at an empty glass."You were right, the cargo hold can easily be repurposed into a missile silo, but they said it would take them four more days to do it, and they didn't have the clearance to do something like that. So I told them to add two more pairs of cannons and a point defence turret."

"I don't think that'll be enough to take on two frigates." She sighed. "Well, better than having only two cannons. How did you get enough credits for a ship and refits?"

"Please, give me another year and I'll buy three more ships like that." He poured himself another glass. "Care to join me?"

"Me?" Lia giggled. "You obviously haven't seen a quarian drink."

David quickly emptied his glass. "Maybe I have," he said with a smirk. "Maybe just I want you to get drunk so I can leave you here too?"

"I don't think even you would do that twice." She paused. "Or maybe you would?"

"There's only one way to find out." He smiled. "What will it be?"

Lia sighed. "Turian bloodwine. I'll need a straw. If I wake up in a few hours, and you won't be with me, I'm going to team up with Colius myself."

"Weak bluff." David grinned and ordered the bloodwine. "Where's Lisea?"

"She said she had some business to take care of." Lia answered.

"She's probably going to sleep with some turian or a krogan. I know too well to know what she means by "business"." David chuckled.

The ordered drinks were delivered. Lia picked up her glass and put a straw in it. "Hmm... I think I should scan it for bacteria first." She stared at the glass. "What are we celebrating?"

"Just wanted to clear my head. But we can celebrate anything you like."

"I think surviving two armed frigates and the Collectors is a reason enough."

"Here's to that." He emptied the glass. "Even after everything that's happened today, a drinking quarian still seems very... irregular."

"More irregular than Collectors showing up in the Imir system?"

"I have a feeling this is going to be be very entertaining."

_**Several minutes later.**_

"... and then I had to chase his ship with a skycar. It was crazy, I jumped on top of a flying ship from a car! Then I blew a hole right above the bridge, dropped some flashbangs in there, jumped down and boom! Everyone but the target was dead in the next four seconds." David emptied another glass and slammed it on the bar. "Your turn."

Lia chuckled, not expecting to ever see David on such a good mood. She picked up her glass. "I once overloaded Ulnay's eezo core while trying to increase it's output." She sipped the bloodwine through the straw. "Some of the conduits exploded and the engineering room was like a war zone. I was seventeen then, I wasn't even allowed in the engineering! I was caught and there was a trial with the captain. I was lucky the ship was intact, I could've been held in the brig for the rest of my life."

David turned his head to her. "And now I'm having second thoughts about letting you near the Excelsior's engineering systems."

"I've learned much since then." Lia grinned inside the helmet. "I'll keep your ship and you alive."

"Our ship. Now that you're staying with me, the Excelsior belongs to you too."

"And Lisea?"

"I'm not sure she'll stay with us. We'll be together until tomorrow, and then its up to her."

Lia gave him a slight nod. "Okay, your turn."

"You do know that I can keep telling these stories until we both get wasted, right?"

"Just do it." Lia said and chuckled, even she didn't know why. *I think I should stop with the bloodwine...*

"Alright. This happened five years ago. I was..." he suddenly stopped talking. "I'll be damned... isn't that Garrus?" He nodded at a turian walking towards them, accompanied by a quarian.

Lia looked behind her. "You're right. But I don't recognize the quarian."

"This day is getting more and more interesting. I wanted to ask them about their mission on Horizon anyway." He said and waited until the two got closer.

"I thought you two looked familiar." Garrus said, standing next to Lia.

"And here I thought you'd already forgotten us." David looked at him, crossing his hands.

"How could I possibly forget the man who sold seven YMIR mechs to people who wanted to kill me?"

"Shepard couldn't resist to tell you, could he..." he sighed and looked at the quarian.

"Ahem. Mind telling me who these two are?" She asked.

"Sure Tali." Garrus said. "This is David Grayson, the man who almost helped the Eclipse to kill me. This is Lia'Vael nar Ulnay, the girl who killed several eclipse squads without firing a bullet."

"Very funny Garrus." David got up and stretched his arm for a handshake.

"Tali'Zorah vas Neema." Tali shook hands with him.

"Tali'Zorah? Daughter of the admiral?" Lia wanted to get up, but decided not to, fearing that she might stumble. Tali nodded.

"So, what brings you here?" Garrus asked, sitting down next to David.

"We just escaped two armed frigates and the Collector ship in a personal transport w-wessel," Lia said. "We thought that we should celebrate that."

"It's vessel, not wessel." David chuckled. "Wait, you're drunk!" He exclaimed.

"Not drunk," Lia answered, "just slightly intox-xicated."

Garrus and Tali grinned. "Yeah, whatever you call it." David smiled.

"She's right. Quarians don't get drunk, we get intoxicated." Tali vouched for Lia. Lia looked at her and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Because that sounds hi-tech and all." David chuckled. Garrus let out a slight chuckle as well.

"Hi-tech getting drunk. Gotta add that to my translator." He sat down.

"So, two frigates and the Collectors?" Tali sat down on the last remaining seat. "Who were those frigates? Pirates?"

David chuckled. "Wish they were. Shadow Broker's agent and an Eclipse ship."

"Shadow Broker?" Garrus asked. "You sure know how to make enemies. If you need help, we might know someone who can do that." He looked at Tali.

"Liara T'Soni. I know, I work with her. She's the reason the Broker wants me dead." David said, leaning back on the chair.

"How did you..." Garrus asked, obviously surprised.

"We were partners once. Now we're friends." David interrupte him. "She used to talk a lot about the Normandy."

"We visited her two days ago." Tali said. "She said she couldn't come with us. Is that because of the Broker?"

David gave her a nod and activated his omni-tool. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but it's time to leave." He looked at Lia. "We have to get to the safehouse."

Lia nodded and got up. Suddenly she felt heavier and stumbled, but David caught her by her arm. She looked around, everyone had a grin on their faces.

"I think that's enough bloodwine for today." She chuckled.

David raised from the chair. "By the way, what happened on Horizon?"

"We arrived just in time to save half of the colonists. And gathered some intel." Garrus answered.

"I know what its like to lose a whole colony." David said. "I've been there more than once. What were the Collectors like up close?"

"Giant walking bugs with beam weapons. Not the best sight to see. They used seeker swarms to paralyse humans, but we used armor enhancements to hide us from those swarms."

"Smart." Lia looked at Garrus.

"Nothing I wouldn't expect from Mordin," David crossed his hands.

"You know Mordin?" Tali asked.

David nodded. "Could you give us schematics of those upgrades? Knowing our luck we'll probably end up fighting the Collectors some day."

"Of course." Garrus activated his tool. "There is somehing I wanted to ask," he raised from the chair. "If Liara trusts you, so can I. I'm looking for someone named Sidonis. I figured, if you're in the information trade business, you might be able to help me find him."

Lia looked at David, wondering what he would say. She thought that they didn't have time to help him.

"I don't really know much about tracking people down, I doubt Lia knows anything about it either, and Liara is too busy with the Broker. But give me everything you have on this Sidonis and I'll ask Liara to spare a few minutes. If she gives me at least one lead, there's someone with me who can help find him."

"I just need his location, nothing more." Garrus paused. "Thanks David. I'm in your debt. I'll also send more intel about the Collectors, just in case."

"Anything for someone who is trying to save us from the Reapers." David smiled. "Give Shepard my regards." He said and signaled Lia to leave.

"Where is he anyway?" Lia asked.

"Somewhere around here, buying upgrades and weapons." Tali raised from the chair. "I just got to know you two, but I guess you're on our side. Good luck out there. Keelah Se'lai."

"Keelah Se'lai." Lia instinctively replied. She and David turned around and walked away.

"Are you really going to help him?" Lia asked as they left the Darkstar. "Do we have time for that?"

"Not much, but yes. we're staying here until tomorrow evening, so why not do something useful?" David paused. "Now let's see if you can walk in a straight line." He grinned.

"Bosh'tet..."

"If you keep calling me that, I might rename myself. How does David "Bosh'tet" Grayson sound?"

"I think it's perfect for someone like you." She smiled.

They walked in silence. Lia thought about what happened in Darkstar.

"Next time we drink, you'll be the one falling, and I'll be the one catching you." She suddenly said.

"Ah. And how is that going to happen?"

"This suit does much more than keeping me safe from infections, you know." Lia smirked.

"I still can't believe you're the same Lia I met about a week ago." David said. "I just hope Lisea isn't rubbing off on you. One Lisea is enough for me."

"Where is this safehouse?"

"Not far. Let's plan what to do while we're staying here. Tonight, I'll ask Liara to give me dossiers of Shepard's crew. Don't ask why, that's how I work. Then I'll ask her about Sidonis. And tomorrow... I'll know that after I talk with Liara. How about you?"

Lia thought for a moment. "There's not much for me to do on the Citadel, so I guess... well, I could buy some upgrades for my suit. But tonight, all I want is a good night sleep."

David nodded and activated the rapid transit station.


	12. Krios

**A/N: Due to my busy schedule this week, the next chapter will arrive a little late. I'm very busy next week too, but I'll try my best to finish the next chapter before next Friday.**

Lia and David went inside the safehouse, which was a few minutes away from there by rapid transit. Lia looked around the flat. It was pretty large, with three rooms along the corridor, and the living room at the other end.

"Damn." David exclaimed. "Can't argue with Lisea's taste. Was the one on Illium like this too?

Lia just nodded, too tired to say anything.

"You wanted to sleep? There's your chance." David smiled.

"Keelah... this is the best idea you've had today." She looked at him. "I think you need to get some rest too."

"I'm fine." David said and walked towards the living room.

Lia entered the closest room to her and dropped on the bed. Her mind wasn't letting her sleep, it was occupied by thoughts about him, just like it was on Illium during last two days. He always seemed like a person without emotions, without concerns, but that changed today. On the Excelsior, he seemed so worried about her wound. But then, in Darkstar, he seemed like all that had never happened... she wasn't used to seeing him like this.

She slowly ran her hand over her mask. It was the only thing keeping her hidden from the world outside. She liked that. She wasn't used to exposing herself to anyone, but David was different. Right now, he was the closest person to her.

Her mind gave up. She disabled the HUD on her mask and closed her eyes...

Several hours later she was awoken by a hissing sound of the door opening. Lia raised her head and narrowed her eyes. It was David.

"Rise and shine." He smiled.

Lia hesitated for a second, then slowly put her feet on the floor. "Keelah... my head's going to explode."

David chuckled. "Teaches you for drinking with a biotic." He said, sitting beside her.

Lia looked at David. She liked it when he would get so close to her. "Lesson learned. How long have I been asleep?"

"Almost twelve hours," David smiled. "Get yourself together, we'll go back where we were yesterday in a few minutes."

"Keelah..." Lia paused. "Has Lisea returned yet?" She mumbled.

"No. Liara thinks we won't need her help now that we have enough intel about Colius. She sent her on another assignment."

"What intel?"

"Enough for us to be able to track him. Wanna do some shopping?"

"You still have credits left?"

David frowned and threw her an offended look.

"Alright. Just... give me a few minutes." She didn't wait for him to answer.

David chuckled. "You might need more than that. Take your time, I can wait."

_**Later, near the Darkstar lounge**_.

Lia got out of the skycar and stood beside David. Her headache was fainting, for which she was thankful.

"What do you have in mind?" She asked.

"I was thinking we could go to Rodam Expeditions first, they received a new shipment yesterday."

Lia nodded and they headed to the store.

"I just remembered." Lia suddenly said. "Garrus asked you something about Sidonis yesterday. Did you find him?"

"He was pretty easy to find, didn't even need Lisea's help. He's here, on the Citadel, and while you've been sleeping, I confirmed his ID. I'll inform Garrus later."

"I'm not even going to ask what "confirmed his ID" means." Lia turned her head to David.

"Would save me some explaining." He smiled. "I read Shepard's teams' dossiers yesterday. Interesting bunch."

"What do you mean?"

"An asari justicar, a drell assassin, crazy human biotic, a tank-bred krogan... some of them are even more messed up than me." He grinned.

They were in front of Rodam Expeditions. David took a step inside...

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel."

He let out a slight chuckle. "What the hell?"

"Did I just hear that?" Lia grinned under the helmet. "Or is my suit malfunctioning?"

"It isn't." David grinned. "So, Etarn, what have you got for me?" He turned to the turian behind the counter.

"Ah, Mr. Grayson. There are some interesting items in yesterday's shipment. New model of the Viper for example. It's a heat sink/thermal clip hybrid."

Lia remembered that the Viper was the weapon she used to kill seven Eclipse mercs on the freighter yesterday, before David had arrived.

"Seems nice. Have one delivered to docking bay S-3." David said after looking at the specs.

"Make that two." Lia walked beside him.

"Huh?" David turned to her.

"Or do you plan on using me as bait again?" She crossed her hands. "Don't worry, I know how to use it."

David looked at her for a second. "God... you've been spending too much time with Lisea. Alright Etarn, do as she says."

The turian nodded. "You need anything else?"

"That's all for now." David said and signaled Lia to leave.

"I think I saw an electronics store somewhere on the lower levels yesterday," Lia said as they walked out. "There might be something useful for my suit there."

"Sure. Let's go." He said and they headed towards the stairs.

"Have you ever thought about living a normal life?" Lia asked as they approached the store.

"Normal? Like a calm life with a family?" He paused. "I was born on a warship. I was raised on different ships, and almost every time my parents argued about something, it was about which weapon was better at getting job done. You expect me to live a "normal" life?"

"I was born and raised on a ship too, but I don't have anything against living a calm life." Lia paused. "Then again, my parents weren't anything like yours."

"Exactly. Right now, this is as normal for me as it gets."

"Really?" She teased him. "Why did you panic and leave me on Illium then?"

"I uh... didn't want you to get involved in this. And you'd slow me down."

"You were worried about me." Lia smirked.

"Well, maybe just a little." David smiled.

They entered Saronis Applications.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite store on the Citadel."

Lia and David looked at each other for a second, then both of them chuckled.

"Is he serious?" David said after he stopped laughing.

Lia looked at the salarian assistant, who looked like he had no clue why they were laughing.

"Don't mind us." She walked to the console. "Do you have anything compatible with quarian suits?"

"There are some high resolution cameras, advanced power cells, and we have a firmware upgrade chip for mark six HUD."

"I'm using mark eight. Mark six is already outdated. But these cameras are impressive, I'll take one. Deliver it to docking bay S-3."

"Of course." The salarian answered and they left the store.

"I'm done. Do you need to go anywhere else?" Lia asked.

"Hmm... I think there's a drell following us." He said without turning his head.

"What?" Lia asked, obviously confused.

"Don't look around. He's been shadowing us since we entered this building. That's never a good sign."

"Are you sure?"

David nodded. "There are very few reasons of why someone would do that. Let's go somewhere more private, there's a warehouse nearby. If he's another assassin, he will try to kill me quietly."

"Something tells me you're not going to just let him do that." Lia smiled.

"You know me so well." He said with a smirk. They walked to the warehouse and Lia hacked the door.

"Good. Nobody's home." David said after looking around. "Hide behind one of the crates, you're not shielded."

Lia nodded and ran behind a large crate on the right side of the room. _What is he going to do?_ She waited for the door to open, but it didn't.

"Where is he?" She whispered.

"He'll be here. Just wait."

Waiting for a potential assassin wasn't something Lia planned for today. They waited for another minute or two, but nobody showed up.

"Are you sure he was following us?" Lia walked out of cover.

"I uh... I think so." David walked out from the other side of the room. "Maybe I'm just paranoid."

Suddenly there was a sound of something metallic falling on the floor. They quickly looked to where the sound came from, David glowed blue and threw Lia screaming behind one of the crates. She let out a loud moan of pain as she fell on the floor. She looked around, trying to get back to her senses, her subconscious wanting to shoot David for what he just did. She couldn't see him anymore. A green figure jumped from the ventilation shaft, landed on the floor and fired several rounds from his pistol to where David was standing.

"David!" Lia exclaimed. No, he wouldn't just die like that.

A second later there was a thwomping noise and the drell was knocked on the ground by a powerful biotic blast. Then there was another blast, sending the drell flying towards the wall behind him. David quickly ran to him, kicked him in the head, grabbed him and pushed him against the wall.

"Decided to jump on huh you son of a bitch?" He said as he restrained him. Lia walked closer to the two. She could see that the drell was struggling to break free, shaking and moaning, but David's grasp was too strong. Suddenly, David eased the grasp. "Wait, Kolyat?!" He asked.

"How do you know my name?" The drell asked and used this moment to kick David in his stomach. David returned the favor by a punch in the face, rendering Kolyat immobile for a second.

"Wait who?" Lia asked as she stood beside David.

"Kolyat Krios, son of Thane Krios, one of Shepard's team members. I read his file yesterday." He turned his head to Kolyat. "You should thank him. Your father has enough to worry about without adding his son's death to the list."

Kolyat looked at him with his eyes widened.

"Just tell me why you want to kill me and I might let you go." David didn't wait for him to say anything.

"There are more people here that want to kill you than I can count." Kolyat yanked again.

"No shit? Tell me something I don't know before I tear your head off." David said, calmly.

"I've got nothing to say to you."

"Your choice." David said and punched him twice in the face. Kolyat fell on the floor, unconscious.

David crouched and activated Kolyat's omni-tool. "Barla Von? That fat asshole." He turned to Lia. "I think C-Sec will be interested in this. And if what I read about Thane is true, he should be interested as well."

_**Several minutes later, in the Darkstar Lounge.**_

Lia sat near the closest table to her, and David joined her. She remembered what had happened here yesterday, and smiled. David sat down on the opposite side.

"Next time you want to throw me out of the line of fire, try doing it without breaking my ribs." Lia said.

"Next time I get shot at, try not to scream my name so loudly. Poor Kolyat probably had a heart attack when you did that." David chuckled. "And I think it's long time you started calling me Dave."

"Okay... Dave. But I can't promise anything about screaming." Lia giggled.

"You'll get used to it in a few days."

They were quiet. "What would you do if I got shot?" Lia asked after a few seconds.

"Well, considering that you can't create biotic barriers and you're a quarian... I'd think that you're dead or heavily wounded and would carry your body to the nearest hospital. I don't scream when someone gets shot." He grinned.

"You seemed pretty nervous on the Excelsior when I got shot, so I'll just assume that you're too proud to admit that you'd at least shout my name out." She teased him.

"Maybe." He smiled.

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Dave was doing something on his omni-tool.

"So, who is this Thane Krios?" Lia asked.

"One of the deadliest assassins in the galaxy. I feel better just by knowing that he's not the Broker's agent and Colius is. His son, on the other hand, didn't live up to my expectations. I guess genes aren't everything."

"He did manage to jump on you." Lia noted.

"He made too much noise, I detected him. I doubt Thane would make such a mistake."

"Sometimes it scares me how much you know about people."

"Then you'll be shocked if you meet Liara. By the way, I need to ask her something." He activated his omni-tool. "Liara, are you there?"

"Hello, David. Did you find Sidonis?" Liara's voice was heard after a few seconds of silence.

"I did. Can you set up a safe comm-link with Garrus?"

"Of course. Stand by, this might take a minute or two."

"Anything new about the Broker? Are you moving forward?" He asked while waiting.

"I'm getting more and more information about his agents. I'm closer to finding him than ever."

"That's great news. Sometimes, I don't even understand how you manage all this."

"That's why I'm the boss."

David smiled. "I guess it is."

"Alright David. Comm-link is up. Frequency Theta seven, encryption code Azure two."

"Thaks." David disabled the comm.

"I've never heard of an encryption code Azure two." Lia said.

"Liara has her own codes for her agents." He said and typed something on his omni-tool. "Garrus, you there?"

"What?!" Garrus's voiced was heard through the comm. "How the hell did you..." he sighed. "Never mind. Did you find anything?"

"Sidonis is on the Citadel. I can confirm that. However, he seems to be working with someone, and has changed his ID. At least you know he's here. I'm sending you all I found about him."

"Bastard's going to get what he deserves. Thanks David, I owe you."

"Anytime Garrus. I found someone else too. Thane Krios is with you right? His son just tried to assassinate me. I think he would like to know that."

"He has a son? I never thought someone like him would have a family."

"He does. I informed C-Sec of his son's whereabouts, he should be arrested soon."

"I wouldn't be so sure. If he's anything like his father, C-Sec won't even know he was there."

"He was unconscious. Well, there's always a chance he escaped, but that's not my problem."

Garrus sighed. "Is Lia there?"

"I'm here." Lia leaned towards Dave's omni-tool.

"Let me tell you something, Lia," Garrus said. "Your friend is the smartest idiot I've met in my life."

Lia chuckled. "I know. Give regards to Tali."

"I will. I'll talk to Thane too. Thanks for the information David. Garrus out."

"Wait, I need to ask you something. Did Shepard endorse EVERY store on the Citadel?" Dave asked with a grin.

Garrus's low toned chuckle was heard from the omni-tool. "Yeah. I can't believe they fell for it."

"I guess being a hero has it's perks." Dave said and disabled the comm.

"So, I'm an idiot huh?" He looked at Lia. "Wait, don't answer that."

Lia giggled. "You knew what was coming."

"I'm getting sick of this place. Let's go see how the Excelsior is doing."

"I'm getting tired of this place too. Especially after what happened yesterday."

"Actually, I think we should do that again sometime." He smiled and got up. "You took alcohol pretty well for a quarian. Next time, I'll order something stronger."

"Never. Again." Lia said firmly, followed by David's chuckle.

**_Two hours later_.**

After several minutes of irritating paperwork, David and Lia entered the hangar where the Excelsior was being repaired. They walked past some salarian and turian workers, went through a door and found themselves standing below the Excelsior. The design looked like it was taken from a turian ship, with two barrels extending from below the cockpit, and four much larger barrels attached on it's "wings".

"Beautiful. Worth every credit I paid for it." David said without looking away from the ship. "I can't wait to get in the pilot's seat and test those cannons."

"I have to admit." Lia turned her head to him. "Even I want to fire a few rounds from those."

"Well, you're in luck," David smiled. "I told them to add a co-pilot's seat and another command console in the cockpit."

"You did? I guess I won't have to spend all the time on the lower deck."

"Nope. You'll be sitting right next to me. But, if you want to take a look at the eezo core sometimes, I've removed the containment casing around it, to make it more accessible."

"How did you know I'd want that?"

"You told me yourself when we fisrt met - you're a quarian." He said with a smile. "Let's get aboard. The workers said they'd finish applying the outer hull plating in two hours. Meanwhile, we can rearrange the interior and test some basic systems."


	13. Ferris Fields

_**A/N: Sorry for the long delay, I've been extremely busy during last three weeks, and I had a writer's block for a whole week. But now my muse is back and I can continue writing.**_

_**So, here it is.**_

**One day later, aboard the Excelsior, somewhere in the Terminus systems**

Dave sat on his bed in his quarters, holding a helmet in his hands. He looked at the letters on it's side - "M.A.D.E.", as they gleamed on the dim lights of the room. A smile slowly appeared on his face. The set of armor he was wearing now was the only thing reminding him where he came from, who his true family was - his former squad. He remembered the good times he'd spent with them during shore leaves, on different ships, even on the battlefield. They were all gone now, they died for nothing, they deserved more.

He looked closely at the new upgrade he'd installed with the blueprints Garrus gave him. Why did he even ask for those blueprints? He was used to taking every precaution for everything, but would he really end up fighting the Collectors? He hated it when his subconscious was right.

The door opened and Lia entered the room.

"Everything is green, we can go wherever you want," She said and walked closer to Dave. "Are you wearing armor?" She asked.

"Just checking if it still fits me. It's been months since I last used it." Dave walked to the armor locker and put the helmet inside. "And this isn't just any armor. Every member of MADE could build his armor himself. I built this."

"And what makes that one special?"

"It basically makes my barriers stronger, and has a built-in tactical cloak. I can even fly in space with this, the thruster pack is inside the locker," he nodded at the armor locker.

"Fly in space? You'll have to show me someday." Lia smiled under the mask.

"Someday. I think it's best if you get some rest now, you've been working for hours," he took a deep breath and shook his head. "Is it just me or is it getting harder to breathe?"

"Harder to breathe? Oh, the life support!" Lia exclaimed and used her omni-tool. "There, this should fix that."

"Life support? Wait, did you disable it?"

"I disabled it to repair a minor damage to one of the oxygen generators." She said, rubbing her hands.

"And you forgot to reactivate it. An interesting way of killing your captain. And yourself," Dave said with a smirk. "See? You need some rest."

Lia sighed. "You're right. I'll go to my quarters. See you in a few hours."

Dave nodded. Lia walked out of the room and he was alone again. He was about to head to the cockpit when he heard a beeping sound. He knew what it meant.

"I wasn't expecting you to call so soon, Liara."

"I know. I have an assignment for you," Liara's voice was heard in his room.

"You do know that I have problems of my own, right?"

"It won't take too long, and if Colius learns where you are, I'll make sure you have enough time to react."

Dave sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to pick up Lisea from a human colony Ferris Fields. She did her job, but she needs to transport a Prothean data archive to Mars."

"Prothean?" Dave frowned. "If it'll help against the reapers, I'll help. How do I get on the planet?"

"I've created a false ID for you. The name is the same, but your past isn't as... colorful. You were hired by Hahne-Kedar. You can read the rest in the file I'm sending."

"So, I just get in there, grab Lisea and get out? I think the fact that I'm in a warship with six cannons is going to make things a little harder," He rested his chin in his hand. "I'll fake some kind of damage to the ship and request emergency repairs. I don't think they'll refuse."

"Handle it they way you see fit. It's not urgent."

"Understood. Grayson out." Dave disabled the comm and left the room...

**Several hours later.**

Dave got within two million kilometers of Ferris Fields and slowed the ship down.

"It's time," he looked at Lia, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

Lia nodded and waved her hand to open a new window of the console. "Overloading the power core... now."

Everything shut down, and for a moment, there was a complete darkness. Only Lia's mask and the command consoles were dimly lit. Soon, the emergency reserves kicked in and the ship was lit with red lights.

"Not bad," Dave looked at Lia with a grin. "Let's see if these colonists buy it."

He increased speed and headed towards the colony. The planet grew larger and larger, and soon they could easily see green continents surrounded by purple oceans. Most of the planet was covered in thick, purple tinted layer of clouds.

"Travel guide did say it was a rainforest planet." Lia said.

"I just hope there aren't any carnivorous plants down there. Man-eaters creep the hell out of me."

"You're afraid of plants?" Lia giggled.

Dave looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be almost eaten alive? Hundreds of poisonous teeth ripping flesh out of your body, and there's nothing you can do about it because the poison has paralyzed you..."

"Dave, I... I can't imagine what it would've been like.I didn't mean to..."

Dave let out a sigh. "I was lucky our medic was there. He got it's attention before it could swallow me."

They were quiet for a few seconds.

"When did that happen?" Lia asked quietly, almost whispering.

"Long before I left MADE. I've never been in a rainforest ever since," He paused. "I'm activating the comm," he said and entered some commands through the virtual keyboard in front of him.

"This is S.S. Excelsior to Ferris Fields, do you read?" He spoke through the comm.

"S.S. Excelsior, this is Ferris Fields command. We read you."

"This is S.S. Excelsior. The ship has suffered a power core failure and we're running on emergency batteries. Requesting permission to perform an emergency landing and repairs."

"Understood Excelsior, stand by."

The comm was quiet for several seconds. Dave and Lia looked at each other in anticipation of the answer. Lia was still trying to imagine what Dave probably went through, she felt sorry for him again.

"S.S. Excelsior, this is Ferris Fields command. Permission granted. Proceed to the designated coordinates."

"Understood."

Dave disabled the comm and looked at Lia.

"Guess we're getting another shore leave," he said, smiling.

"Try not to find any assassins here too," Lia grinned.

"Except for Lisea, I don't think there will be anymore assassins here. Now let's see how this girl can handle planetary landing on emergency power."

He tapped some holo-buttons in front of him and the Excelsior's engines pushed the ship from the planet's orbit into its atmosphere. After a few minutes of shaking and loud humming, they passed through the cloud layer. They were flying above a medium-sized town, surrounded by a thick rainforest from all sides. The starport was near the least populated side of the town.

Dave looked at Lia, who had her hands clenched around the edges of her seat with such force, that it looked like she was about to tear it off the floor, and chuckled.

"I don't believe it," he said with a smirk. "You just blew up your ship's power core, and you're afraid of some atmospheric turbulence?"

Lia quickly removed her hands from the seat. "This isn't space!" She said nervously. "If one of the engines fail here..."

"We'll just bail out," Dave tried to calm her down. "You know, you remind me of myself on my first planetary missions," he chuckled.

Lia turned her head to him, surprise furrowing her brow. Did he just say that she was like him?

The ship slowly closed in on the starport and landed on one of the landing pads.

"Remember, we work for Hahne-Kedar," Dave looked at Lia, who nodded in response.

"Is this all really necessary?" She asked.

"Unless you can convince them to just give us a piece of ancient alien technology, we'll have to, um... take it without permission," he got on his feet. "Or Lisea could have a plan of some kind."

Lia got up and followed him to the exit. As they got closer to the airlock, Lia used her omni-tool to open it. The bright light coming from outside blinded them for a split second. Then they saw five silhouettes standing right outside the airlock. Four of them were armed. The unarmed man in the middle stepped forward. "Welcome to Ferris Fields. My name's Robert Cortez, chief of starport security. And you are?"

Dave frowned for a second, as if he remembered something, and then stepped off the ship. "Grayson. David Grayson. This is Lia'Vael nar Ulnay, my assistant," he signaled Lia to come closer.

"Nice to meet you both. I'm sorry for this inconvenience, but you'll understand that when an armed vessel lands on a colony like this and an armored man steps out of it, there will he suspicions. We'll have to search your ship."

"Of course. I assure you, nothing you find in there was meant to threaten your security. Open the cargo hold, Lia."

Lia hesitated for a second, surprised by Dave's obedience, but the confident look on his face reassured her. She tapped her omni-tool, and two large doors on the aft section of the ship slowly opened. Robert nodded at the opened doors and the other four quickly entered the ship.

"So, what brings you to this system?" He asked after a couple of minutes of silence without moving his head away from Dave.

"We were hired by Hahne-Kedar corporation to root out the malfunctioning mech series."

"Hanhe-Kedar? We ordered a shipment of LOKI mechs that were to be delivered two days ago. Is that why they never arrived?"

"Be glad they didn't. The mechs got crazy, and shoot anything in sight. Then, they self destruct. I was sent to intercept the shipment that was coming to this colony and stop them, but a solar storm in the neighbouring system had already disabled the transport ships. Unfortunately, the same storm messed up my ship, and after a relay jump the power core overloaded."

"I tried repairing it in space, but I didn't have the necessary components," Lia stepped forward. "We thought you might help us."

Robert crossed his hands and stared at Lia. "Let's see what the boys find in your ship first."

They waited for a few more minutes. Then, one of the men walked out of the ship.

"Find anything?" Robert asked.

"Two Vipers in the weapons locker, two pistols in the cockpit, and an armor locker. That's all." The man replied, and the other three left the ship as well.

"The weapons are for safety measures," Dave said. "In case we had to use force on the mechs."

"Scan them too." Robert nodded at Dave and Lia. One of the armed men approached them with his omni-tool and activated the scanner.

"No surprises here," he said after finishing the scan.

Robert looked at him with a frown. "Again, sorry for the inconvenience. Would you like us to send a repair team to your ship?"

"I don't think they would understand the Excelsior's systems," Lia said. "I'd prefer to do it myself. I just need the components."

"You'd be surprised how talented our engineers are. We even have a quarian here," Robert replied. "Well, if you don't need our help, at least let us give you a lift."

"Of course." Dave said and they all headed to the shuttle nearby. When everyone was aboard, the shuttle lifted from the ground with a humming noise and flew off to the town center.

"So, there's another quarian here?" Lia asked Robert, who was sitting on the opposite side of the shuttle.

"Yeah, he's on his Pilgrimage or something. I don't remember his full name... I've heard people call him Kenn, through."

Lia swiftly looked at Robert with her eyes widened after hearing this. She then looked at Dave, who responded with a smile.

Robert suddenly got on his feet. "I need to inject you with an immuno-booster, Mr. Grayson," he said, grabbing a jet injector from one of the medkits.

"For what?" Dave asked with a frown.

"Some of the insects here can kill you in two stings if you're not protected."

"Oh..." Dave said and patiently waited as Robert placed the injector on his neck, releasing the medicine.

They were silent for the rest of the way. In a few minutes, the shuttle landed near the center of the town. Dave and Lia stepped on the ground.

"Don't mind if some of the colonists give you strange looks. An armored man is an unusual sight here." Robert shouted from the shuttle loud enough for them to hear through the humming.

"I'll keep that in mind. We'll gather the necessary components and leave as soon as we can," Dave replied.

"Hey, unless you start a firefight around here, you can stay for as long as you want."

"Thanks for the hospitality, we'll take it from here."

"Have a nice stay," Robert said and the shuttle door closed. The shuttle lifted from the ground and flew off to the starport.

"Keelah... I can't believe Kenn is here. What's he doing on a human colony in the Terminus?" Lia turned to Dave as soon as they were alone.

"You're asking me?" He frowned.

"After what happened on Omega, I thought he'd pick someplace calm and safe. I guess he just can't stay out of danger," Lia shrugged.

"Well then, that's something you two have in common," Dave said with a grin.

Lia looked at him and let out a slight giggle. "That's probably why he's my best friend. Will we have time to see him?"

Dave smiled. "Liara did say this mission wasn't urgent. I think there's time for you to find him. Just try to be discreet until I find Lisea, don't attract too much attention."

"Thanks, Dave," Lia said, smiling and prepared to leave.

"Make sure the Excelsior's ready to fly within two hours," Dave said before she'd left. "These colonists might not be as friendly after we're done."

"I just need to cross a few wires, I only overloaded the flow capacitor," she replied.

Dave sighed. "Alright, but if I have to defend my ship from the angry colonists because I couldn't fly away in time, I'll throw you out the airlock."

"No you won't," Lia giggled and walked away. Dave kept looking until she was out of his sight, and then activated his omni-tool.

"So, how did this little field trip go?" He asked over the comm.

"Emergency landing, huh?" Lisea's response was heard. "Hope you didn't really break your ship."

"Just the power flow capacitor. Where are you?"

"See the tall building on your left? That's the colony's tech center."

Dave looked on his left and saw Lisea looking from a window of that building. "So you really convinced these people that you're an expert on Protheans?" He asked with a grin.

"These people know this thing's nothing but trouble. They want to get rid of it as soon as possible. I have to admit though, I've never spoken so much technobabble in my life."

"I didn't even know you could speak technobabble," Dave smiled. "Got a plan on how to get that thing out of here?"

"I've already told the officials that I would transport the data bank off this planet whenever I could. So, I'll "accidentally" learn that there's a mercenary here, and will hire you to transport me to Mars."

"Simple enough," Dave was going to cut the comm, but remembered something. "Is there anything here I'd be interested in, or should I just wait in the ship?"

Lisea's chuckle was heard in response. "Something you'd be interested in? No, they don't keep stray quarians here for you to take home."

"I'd like to hear you say that when Lia's around," Dave said with a grin.

"No thanks. Do you know what she did on that freighter before you rescued us?" Lisea let out a chuckle. "She kept popping those mercs' heads and then carried a wounded helmsman to the bridge. That's when she got shot."

"That's... unexpected," Dave said with a frown. "I'll admit, she's full of surprises."

"Figured there was something special you liked in her. Normal people tend to die around you."

Dave just replied with a quiet chuckle and cut the comm.

**Two hours later**

Dave got off the shuttle he'd taken back to his ship and headed towards the Excelsior. He saw another shuttle near it. Out of curiosity, he walked faster to see who it was. The airlock of the Excelsior was open and Dave entered the ship, looking around to see who was inside. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice from the eezo core room. It reminded him of Kenn.

"That capacitor will burn out as soon as you start the engines," the voice said. Dave looked inside the room and saw Kenn and Lia crouched near an open panel on one of the wall.

"Keelah... how could I miss that?" Lia got up. "We need to replace it."

"There are a few PI-6 capacitors in the colony reserves. I'll see if I can get permission to take one." Kenn got on his feet.

"Thanks, Kenn. Just make sure you bring it before David comes back. The ship should've been repaired by now."

"Too late for that," Dave said with a smirk and entered the room. Kenn and Lia looked at him in surprise.

"Dave? How long have you been standing there?!" Lia asked, rubbing her hands.

"Long enough to hear the interesting part," he said, smiling. "How are you doing, Kenn?"

Kenn looked at him for a second. "Much better than on Omega. Thanks for asking Mr. Grayson. I help these people build their home, and they'll help me return to mine."

"Glad to hear it."

"A piece of advice - don't trust her when it comes to power distribution systems." Kenn nodded at Lia.

She rested her mask on her hand and shook her head. "Keelah..."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," Dave chuckled.

"Kenn, the flow capacitor," Lia said firmly and looked at him.

Kenn let out a chuckle. "I better go before she gets really angry. It never ends well for me."

"I know what it's like, so I won't stop you," Dave grinned. "Are you sure we can't use the engines without replacing that part?" He asked before Kenn had left the room.

"It's not just the engines," he turned around. "Everything on this ship is connected to only two systems - primary and emergency. Using anything that requires a lot of power from the primary source will overload this capacitor. "

"And this landing almost completely depleted our emergency reserves," Lia added.

"Alright then, I'll wait for you," Dave said and Kenn left the ship.

"Didn't you tell me you'd just cross a few wires and we'd be ready to fly?" Dave asked with a smirk once they were alone.

"It's not my fault that your refitted ship came with defected flow capacitors." Lia grinned.

"The company that refitted it is owned by a volus, so I think defected parts are expected. Let's hope Kenn comes back soon, Lisea should be here with the artifact any minute now." Dave said and pushed against a wall. "So, how did you like this colony?"

Lia walked close to him. "I'd say it's a nice place to live. Nice people, cozy little houses... Kenn is lucky to be here."

Dave looked at her. "Think you could live here?"

"Me? No. I don't belong on a planet. My place is on a ship, all the time. I think every quarian would say the same. You?"

"You already know the answer to that. The life I'm living now is the one I chose, and I'm not planning to change that yet. Besides, I can't just settle down and wait for the Reapers to invade."

Lia playfully huffed . "Thanks for reminding me of that. Sometimes I think that everything we're doing now is in vain."

Dave put his hand on her shoulder. "Nothing's in vain. We'll take Colius down and then help Shepard stop them. Whatever happens, we'll keep fighting, we won't give up."

Lia looked at him, smiling. She was about to say something, but suddenly Lisea entered the room.

"Where the hell have you been?! I've been trying to contact you for past twenty minutes!" She said.

"What?" Dave turned to her. "There haven't been any incoming comms for past hour. Maybe your omni-tool messed up."

"It's working perfectly," Lisea said after tapping some holo-buttons on her omni-tool. "Wait, I think the receiver is dead. Check yours."

Dave and Lia activated their tools. None of them could detect any signals of any kind.

"Something's wrong here. Do you have a dampening field around your ship?" Lisea asked.

Dave shook his head. "Let's try the ship's communicator. It's in the cockpit."

They headed to the elevator pad and stepped on it. The pad slowly ascended and lifted the three on the second walked to the pilot's seat. Dave pulled up a screen and tapped some buttons on it.

"Damn, I can't even raise the colony command center. Something's definitely wrong."

They were quiet. None of them knew what was wrong. Suddenly the silence was replaced by loud humming. Then there was shaking. They looked outside to see what was causing it.

Black stains appeared in the clouds. They started descending slowly, like streams of water, and more of them appeared again. A familiar ship appeared from the clouds, the ship of terror, the ship of death. Soon, the furthest part of the town was covered in an ocean of black.

"Goddess..." the word escaped Lisea's lips as she watched all this.

"Collectors..." Dave mumbled…

Lia looked at all this in terror, unable to say a word.

"There's still a way out. Bring the data bank aboard and seal the ship," Dave ran to the elevator pad.

"Where are you going?" Lia instinctively took a few steps toward the elevator.

"If we can't fly without that capacitor, I need to bring it here."

"But Kenn already…" Lia's body froze before she could finish the sentence. "Oh Keelah, Kenn…"


End file.
